LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today unveils the Most Influential Brands among its 364 million members worldwide, as well as the most influential among LinkedIn’s 18 million UK members.
The ranking is based on LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Score, which is calculated by measuring a brand’s unique engagement and dividing it by a brand’s audience. The rankings show that there are a few key sectors that are excelling in developing engaging content marketing strategies.
Media brands such as the Financial Times and the Economist featured in the top ten, demonstrating that high quality, long form content is key in keeping people engaged on social media. Content from companies as diverse as recruiter Michael Page and Unilever also placed them on the UK top ten.
2015 top ten most influential brands among UK LinkedIn members
1. EY
2. Hays
3. BP
7. Michael Page
8. Unilever
10. GSK
LinkedIn has used this data to identify the behaviours and activity that boost content engagement. The most effective brands use a mix of reach, frequency and engagement to boost engagement on LinkedIn. In addition, they are encouraging their employees to act like influencers and boost the reach and engagement of their content by sharing it with their contacts
100% of the top global brands have employees sharing their content with their networks
- 97.6% of the top global brands have employee posts contributing to their content efforts
- 100% of top brands regularly share updates on their LinkedIn Company Page
- 73% of top brands are utilising Sponsored Updates
- All of these top brands post an average of 12.6 updates per week
LinkedIn also released insight into the content topics that resonate most with audiences on the platform, namely:
- Current affairs and financial news top the list, with professional development, leadership and productivity in second
- Company and industry trends meanwhile are placed third
- Analysing the industry in question and creating an engaging content calendar is key to creating material that will be effective in catching the attention of audiences
Commenting on the top ten list, Joshua Graff, Senior Director, Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn EMEA, said, “With business professionals being 90% through the purchase decision making journey before reaching out to a vendor, content is now the primary way to engage, educate and inspire your customer base.
In a world where professionals are time poor, mobile-minded and have an ever increasing content quality bar, these 10 brands have broken through the clutter to provide high quality, personalised and relevant content that helps their customers and employees become more productive and successful. To be taken seriously, content must provide utility and these brands are doing just that.”
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the ways companies hire, market and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has more than 364 million members and has offices around the world.