For a long time, hardly anyone used LinkedIn. It wasn’t common to share content because it was seen as bland compared to platforms. Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram were more popular. But that’s all changed now!
Today, around 2.5 million people use LinkedIn in New Zealand. Stats from 2022 show 32% of people aged 30-49 are active on the site at least once a week. While that’s still small compared to Facebook and Instagram – with 87% of people in that age group log into Facebook once a week and 59% on Instagram. But it’s a bigger percentage of the same age group than logging onto TikTok at least once a week, which is only 25%.
As more and more people look elsewhere for social media outlets, LinkedIn has become more diverse. It’s no longer where you park your CV and hopes to make connections that would get you hired.
Today people share more personal updates, and company pages are a mix of selling and informative posts about what their staff have been up to. LinkedIn should be a go-to platform if your marketing strategy is business-to-business (B2B) or you are building your business around who you are – your personal brand.
In this blog, we highlight some of the people and organisations that use LinkedIn well. Check out how they educate, inform and celebrate their business achievements. We hope they inspire you to build your own brand.
Simran Kaur
Simran is the voice behind the Girls That Invest podcast, one of the biggest business podcasts globally. She encourages women and minorities to get into investing. She’s also grown the Girls That Invest community to over 300,000 members.
Simran’s LinkedIn profile is an excellent example of how to share success without bragging. She shares her accomplishments with her 20,000-strong LinkedIn following – but always in a humble way. Along with words of wisdom learnt on her journey. Plus, she always looks like she loves her work!
Tracy Minnoch-Nuku
Tracy talks on LinkedIn about something that isn’t talked about all that much – menopause. You might think LinkedIn is a funny place to discuss women’s health, but it’s an important topic to consider in the workplace. And one that’s becoming more at the forefront as organisations consider employees’ health and well-being.
Tracy’s feed does include a lot about what she is doing and the promotion of her personal brand and wellness app. But it also has a slew of posts, both from Tracy and reposted from other places, that are informational. These highlight how menopause affects women in the workplace and how companies can help to deal with that effect. It’s an excellent example of how LinkedIn has changed in recent years.
No longer just used for networking or job seeking; it is now a platform that can be used for social change too. People are talking about issues, not just their latest promotion.
Andrew Barnes
Andrew Barnes is the man behind the 4-day work week, which is taking off in New Zealand and worldwide. He is also the current chair of Givealittle, which helps people set up fundraising pages for worthy causes.
Andrew’s LinkedIn feed is an excellent example of how you can choose a niche and position yourself as an expert in that area. His recent posts are about the 4-day work week and the work done to establish the concept globally. It shows his commitment to the idea. As well as building his reputation as a leader.
ASB
In 2023, ASB was named by LinkedIn as one of the top companies in New Zealand to work for. Their LinkedIn profile makes the most of that by including a link to the list in their bio section. The bank’s profile also uses other features, such as the Life tab, which isn’t seen on many profiles but enables ASB to add extra information about what working for them looks like.
The feed is a good mix of highlighting the company, its partnerships, and the people working there. It also shares the love by highlighting its customers’ work through case studies. One of the standouts of the ASB account is its branding which ties in the logo’s yellow and consistent fonts throughout the mix of posts, bringing cohesion to the feed.
TRA (The Research Agency)
TRA is a market research and insights company based in Auckland (and Australia) which helps businesses analyse and plan strategies.
That could be very technical and boring, but TRA’s LinkedIn feed manages to avoid that. It’s a mix of the company’s achievements and activities and valuable articles and analyses for anyone in business. A combination of photos, videos and carousels helps to break down what could be difficult-to-understand concepts. Plus, bite-size chunks that work for social media.
Has our selection of LinkedIn leaders inspired you to spruce up your profile? Then check out our short course on Personal Branding on LinkedIn that will give you all the help you need. And if you want to dive further into social media, our Social Media Strategy Course covers LinkedIn and other popular social media platforms.
