1. Knowledge is shared there
While public sharing is on the decline across other platforms, “On LinkedIn, there’s still a lot of public sharing happening and that’s growing really rapidly,” said our analyst Jasmine Enberg. Users shared 41% more content in spring 2023 compared with the same period in 2021, according to LinkedIn.
That environment creates more opportunities for brands, leaders, and influencers to cultivate meaningful audiences.
2. It has a news-focused audience
LinkedIn is focusing on news while Facebook and X are pivoting away, said Smiley. In fact, 60% of users are regularly getting news from the platform, according to Pew Research Center.
“They have a pretty big editorial team, and … you can see curated news every day from LinkedIn,” said Smiley.
But the type of news being shared is what really elevates the discourse. “It’s not necessarily hard news, but really people offering their takes and their perspectives on things that are going on in the world,” said Enberg.
3. Brand-safe and on topic
While engagements on other social platforms can be toxic, LinkedIn has become a space where users are not only professional but also more engaged and conversational. “I’ve talked to so many marketers who just say people are just having more fun on LinkedIn,” said Smiley. “They’re kind of treating it like how we used to treat Facebook back in the day, just sharing life updates.”
The average time spent on LinkedIn per visit among US desktop and mobile users reached nearly 8 minutes in March, according to SimilarWeb, up 11% in the last three years.
Part of that is because users are connected to their colleagues and bosses, so they’re more likely to behave.
4. Expanded ad options
“LinkedIn itself has just become savvier for advertisers,” said Smiley. “They’re introducing ad formats that I think are making the platform more attractive to advertisers.” Among these new formats are Thought Leader ads, which allow companies to promote posts from executives or users.
Though still dwarfed by Meta’s share (74.5%), LinkedIn will net 5.2% of US social ad revenues in 2024, a total of $4.51 billion.
“I think when we saw all the turmoil at X over the past couple of years, a lot of users moved over to LinkedIn, sometimes begrudgingly, and LinkedIn was able to pick up a lot of the business and news content that Twitter was known for,” said Enberg.
This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.
