As a B2B marketer, if you’re ignoring LinkedIn, you could be missing out on vital opportunities to connect with your audience and generate new leads.
In fact, LinkedIn’s research found that audiences exposed to brand messages on LinkedIn are six times more likely to convert. It’s no wonder why 40% of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn is the most effective channel for finding and converting high-quality leads.
But how do you know if your LinkedIn marketing strategy is working? With the help of LinkedIn monitoring tools, optimizing your efforts can get a lot easier.
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Importance of LinkedIn monitoring tools
When we talk about LinkedIn monitoring, we’re referring to the process of keeping track of your audience on LinkedIn, looking for ways to connect with them and turn them into customers.
LinkedIn monitoring tools can serve multiple functions. They can track your own performance on LinkedIn through detailed analytics, helping you measure the success of your social media marketing strategy.
However, LinkedIn monitoring tools also employ social listening, which listens for the conversation around your brand and other keywords you’re tracking. These “mentions” of your brand and other keywords allow you to pay attention to how people are talking about you, your competitors, and your overall market.
Social listening essentially lets you do market research and competitor analysis all through the help of one tool, which can save you time and allow you to optimize your overall B2B marketing strategy according to what your audience wants to see.
Review of selected LinkedIn monitoring tools
1. Keyhole
Keyhole is an all-in-one social media marketing tool that allows you to measure your online performance, keep an ear out for mentions, discover influencers who are the right fit, and conduct market research through one easy-to-use platform.
Track hashtags, keep an eye on your competitors, and optimize your LinkedIn strategy with the help of Keyhole’s real-time analytics and reports. Although Keyhole is an excellent LinkedIn monitoring tool, its suite of features works with a multitude of social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, creating a one-stop shop for all of your social monitoring needs.
Pricing: Prices start at $79 per month after a free trial of 14 days.
2. Brand24
With its powerful AI, Brand24 turns your social listening efforts into data-driven insights into your audience, your competitors, and your market.
Dive deep into what your mentions mean with sentiment analysis and track how far the conversation around your brand is spreading with Brand24’s social listening analytics, focusing on your mentions’ reach and engagement. Receive insights into what your customers want and make better B2B marketing decisions according to your social listening reports.
It’s worth noting that Brand24 does offer LinkedIn monitoring through its social listening features, but the platform does not provide analytics on your account’s performance. However, its social listening suite is relatively extensive. While it listens to LinkedIn, it also listens to most major social media networks, as well as blogs, forums, online reviews, and much more.
Pricing: Prices start at $99 per month.
3. Brandwatch
Brandwatch offers a suite of products that focus on three critical parts of social media marketing: consumer intelligence, social media management, and influencer marketing.
Through its consumer intelligence features, Brandwatch’s AI helps you track your mentions, turn those mentions into vital insights into your market, and generate reports for your stakeholders, helping you create a better B2B marketing strategy.
Brandwatch goes further with its additional products and features. You can also manage your LinkedIn presence through the platform, building out your content calendar with posts designed to connect with your audience. However, should you plan to use Brandwatch’s influencer marketing tool, you may be disappointed to find that it does not currently work with LinkedIn.
Pricing: Brandwatch doesn’t post pricing publicly and requires interested parties to go through a free demo to learn about pricing options.
4. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool providing you with one platform where you can create LinkedIn posts, engage with your audience, analyze your performance, and track how LinkedIn users are talking about you and your competition.
With Sprout Social’s helpful AI, you’ll find the right keywords to track and never miss a critical mention. The platform helps you identify trends, allowing you to dive into what’s happening in your market and optimize your overall marketing strategies with the assistance of Sprout Social’s LinkedIn data collection.
Pricing: Prices start at $199 per month.
5. Mention
Mention, as the name implies, is a social listening tool that tracks your mentions, but it goes much further. You can monitor conversations from over one billion sources, including LinkedIn, and track topics in real time. You can then turn these insights into a better LinkedIn strategy with the help of Mention’s publishing tool, which allows you to post to LinkedIn through the platform.
With the platform’s competitive analysis features, you can always keep an eye on your competition. Mention’s keyword queries are also highly dynamic, allowing you to restrict or grow your search to see only the mentions you want to see most.
Pricing: Prices start at $49 per month.
Integration of B2B marketing funnel optimization
LinkedIn differs from many other social media networks because business-to-business interactions, as opposed to business-to-consumer interactions, tend to thrive on the platform. It’s a powerful tool for lead generation, establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry, and conducting essential market research.
On LinkedIn, you can connect with potential customers, publish pieces that establish your experience, and create tailored and targeted ads. LinkedIn monitoring tools offer you a multitude of opportunities to optimize your B2B marketing funnel.
At the top of the funnel is your first introduction between you and your potential customer. By tracking the conversation around your brand and your industry, you can learn about what your audience wants to see and create content that caters to their desires, developing your first effective touchpoint with your customers.
From there, your audience will transition to the middle of the funnel, where they’re considering their options. With LinkedIn monitoring tools, you can keep an eye on your competition, enabling you to stay one step ahead of them to demonstrate to your potential customer why you should be their choice.
Once they reach the bottom of the funnel and are ready to buy, you can utilize your LinkedIn monitoring tool to find the best places to connect with your audience, helpfully guiding them toward where and how to make a purchase.
Enhancing lead generation and contact discovery
LinkedIn can enable you to garner the attention of your audience and help potential customers come to you. However, the platform is also a massive benefit to B2B marketers because you can find leads to reach out to in addition to those who reach out to you first.
With the help of a LinkedIn monitoring tool, you can generate leads by finding out who is talking about you through the tracking of your mentions.
You can also track beyond your brand’s mentions. Many LinkedIn monitoring tools let you track multiple keywords, which you can cleverly use to find leads who may be interested in your services.
For example, if you were to run a software company that offers a no-code website solution, you might track keywords around website building to find potential customers who may be in need of a new site.
From there, you can use LinkedIn and other sources to find accurate contact information, allowing you to make a formal introduction between the lead and your brand. Thanks to the LinkedIn monitoring tool, you’ll know that you’re connecting with someone who already has an interest in what you can provide.
Conclusion
The right LinkedIn monitoring tool can mean the difference between connecting with your ideal customer and missing out on a valuable lead.
These monitoring tools can help you optimize not only your LinkedIn strategy but also your overall B2B marketing and lead generation efforts. Through the tool’s social listening, you’ll receive insights into your market, enabling you to stay ahead of your competition and show your audience why you’re the top choice.
Looking to give your B2B marketing a boost? Try Keyhole’s 14-day free trial to learn how our LinkedIn monitoring tool can connect you with your next customer.
Related Articles:
LinkedIn Engagement Rate: How to calculate it? (Formula + Calculator)
How To Do LinkedIn Competitor Analysis & Research
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is LinkedIn useful for marketing?
LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tool. According to a study by Ipsos and LinkedIn, the platform is the most commonly used social media tool by B2B marketers. LinkedIn’s research also found that the platform’s audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience. That buying power resulted in the platform finding that brands can expect to see a conversion rate that’s twice as high as other platforms. B2B marketers agree that LinkedIn is the place to be for lead generation.
2. How do you measure your performance on LinkedIn?
When measuring your performance on LinkedIn, there are a few metrics to look for:
-Reach: the number of people who see your posts
-Impression count: the number of times people have seen your posts (may be higher than your reach rate, as some people may see your post multiple times)
-Engagement rate: the percentage of engagements you received based on your impression count (to find your engagement rate, tally up the total engagement received on a post — comments, reactions, shares — then divide that by your impression count)
-Follower growth: the rate at which you’re receiving new followers
-Click-through rate (CTR): the rate at which people are clicking the links in your posts, which will tell you how much your LinkedIn posts are driving traffic to your website
3. What is a good engagement rate on LinkedIn?
Your LinkedIn engagement rate will likely vary depending on your industry. However, marketing experts agree that a typical “good” engagement rate is between 1% and 3.5%.