LinkedIn is a social media platform with the most business-like approach to sharing. Facebook is also a great method of sharing, but is predominantly more social, less business.
This doesn’t mean content and style has to be mutually exclusive, you can use humour and charm on LinkedIn as well as have a business or sales message on LinkedIn, but whatever story you have to tell, tell it like you’re in a business meeting on LinkedIn and down the pub, or out to dinner, on Facebook.
When writing, either a blog post or a simple update, you need to bear in mind that the reader will be in a different frame of mind, even if it is the same person. LinkedIn is a business to business platform whereas Facebook is targeted at the consumer, so even if the message is the same, it needs to be tailored for the correct audience.
First of all, you need to be clear on what it is you want to say. For example, perhaps you are graphic designer…
Your message is that you have great, innovative ideas for designing business cards, but you have two different audiences to talk to.
Whatever your message, my tip is to always focus on the benefits to your customers, not the features. “My business card designs are beautiful” is an obvious statement, something like “make your card stand out from the pile”, that would be more likely to interest and engage your audience. You are focussing on the benefit to your clients not the feature your service provides.
When you’re writing for LinkedIn readers, connections and readers could include industry contemporaries and complimentary industries. Meaning, the graphic designer is talking to other designers and printers. The photographer is talking to other photographers and wedding venues, or anyone who needs a professional head-shot. People who are browsing LinkedIn have a business frame of mind - they are not looking for frippery, as on Facebook, they are there to find or share inspiration for their day job, or to make a networking connection.
In this instance your message would contain benefit statements that sell the idea that having great photography would benefit their businesses. For example, “I will make you feel comfortable in front the camera” becomes, “capture the essence of amiability and show the world how approachable you are”, or “I take avant-garde photographs, that are different to those of other wedding venues” becomes, “the intimacy of your venue captured and celebrated”. Benefits – not features, talking on a business level.
The same photographer wants to engage customers here. They could stick with a similar benefit statement, but most people on Facebook aren’t looking for a new professional profile photo or images for their website. They are not in a business frame of mind when they are looking through the news feed here. So rather than saying “your wedding photographed with cutting-edge technology and innovative poses”, perhaps “the memories of your special day preserved with state-of-the-art photography techniques”.
Your website is the place for listing features and technical bumf - social media is the place to be social.
Top tip for writing to your audience
Research and understand your audience’s needs and sell the benefits of your service to solve their issues, heal their pain. What does that mean? The wedding venue prides itself on being the place where two lives change forever and share deep, affectionate feelings and promises, in public. As a photographer, you need to slip in and out without breaking that spell, you need to perpetuate those feelings of love, not hinder or infringe on the intimacy. Those are the benefits to talk about.
How many service providers have you ever come across that says they’re different because they listen? That’s not a unique selling point. Learn about your audience and what need or concern you fulfil or eliminate.
Remember, social gathering (Facebook) or business meeting (LinkedIn)? Tell your story in the most appropriate way for that setting and you can’t go wrong.