If Facebook serves as the main social media platform for business-to-consumer marketing, then LinkedIn plays the same role for business-to-business marketing. However, growing a base of LinkedIn Followers is still a challenge for companies and economic development agencies. Followers are essentially part of the target audience that will interact in a business-to-business setting. To grasp why some companies manage to attract a large number of followers while others struggle to reach a significant count, it’s crucial to consider the motivations of users on this business networking site.
Here are four possible reasons why people follow companies on LinkedIn:
1. It makes good strategic intelligence sense
The “Follow” feature on LinkedIn is mainly used by people who want to keep an eye on a company’s changes and progress. Some of those who choose to do this may not want to interact with the company, so they shouldn’t be seen as part of the target audience for a social media campaign.
2. They are job hunting
Members on LinkedIn at times use the follow function as a part of their job hunting process. On a primary level, these individuals do not have an initial interest in engaging in the hopes of buying however; they might become future prospects to purchase or to partner. As a result, companies may include these job hunters as a part of the audience however; it may take awhile for individuals to have their interest piqued after they have dealt with their initial preoccupation which is finding a job.
3. To generate leads
As a natural extension of what was mentioned in point #1 (i.e., strategic intelligence), individuals that follow a company is a part of the leads generation process. This allows individuals to track personnel movement, news and the capacity to network with key and new contacts. These individuals are clearly the core of the target audience and should be included in the network of sales representatives and engaged with accordingly.
4. Brand affinity
In a business-to-business content, a follow on LinkedIn can be a sign of brand affinity. Based on prior experiences, individuals may select to follow a company based on what their brand represents to them and to a larger audience. As one of the companies that I follow, the market research firm, eMarketer is on my list. I have come to associate the brand, “eMarketer” as a source of dependable information regarding digital marketing, media and commerce. With this in mind, I can say that I am a part of the firm’s target audience and I am interested in the content made available via its company profile page which includes a listing of some of their products as seen in Figure 1.
Conclusion
Although LinkedIn provides business-to-business marketers with a platform to engage with individuals that have selected to follow companies, an analysis of the followers must done. Not all followers should be treated the same in the lead generation dynamic. Followers have their own motivations when it comes to selecting firm to follow and should be qualified as true leads based on their affiliation with a company or a position.