Here’s the fourth edition of the LinkedIn Content Insights Quarterly. This report uses LinkedIn data to examine what kinds of content LinkedIn members are engaging with on the platform, including the kinds of articles a particular audience — in this edition, financial services professionals — is interacting with. This information is invaluable for content marketers looking to engage LinkedIn members on the platform.
For the final quarter of 2017, we examined the articles and topics that caught the eye of financial services professionals. With the stock market regularly setting records, the financial services sector wields powerful influence in the American and global economy. The window we provide on what content financial services are engaging with on LinkedIn gives marketers insight into how to reach this important and lucrative audience.
And finally, we also tracked the conversation about Net Neutrality, a controversial topic that has huge implications into how people access their favorite websites and other digital content. We gauged what Top 5 articles about Net Neutrality are capturing LinkedIn members’ attention. (To see previous dives into the content our members our reading on LinkedIn, view our reports from the first and second and third quarters).
Top Topics for Financial Services Professionals
The top topics that financial services professionals engaged with on LinkedIn in Q4 2017 were all directly related to the financial services industry and ranged from reinsurance to fixed annuities to investment banking. The topics show the wide breadth of the financial services industry and how content is being published on LinkedIn that reaches every corner of this crucial economic sector.
Lessons for Marketers: The content financial professionals are engaging with on LinkedIn shows that there is genuine discussion of real business topics taking place on the platform. Marketers should understand that members are seeking information on LinkedIn that can give them a professional edge, and the most effective content marketers are publishing useful content to stand out.
Top Articles for Financial Services Professionals
The top articles that financial services professionals were engaging with on LinkedIn reveal a diversity of interests (within the financial sector). Some of the articles — such as “The 10 Most Impressive New Managing Directors at Goldman Sachs” — show the potential for networking on the platform by keeping up with rising stars in the industry. Other articles offered career advice, such as “Banks are Actively Headhunting for Workers Again, but They Want Specific Skills.” And other published pieces delivered insight into the changing nature of the financial services sector: “A Former Goldman Sachs VP who Founder a Crypto Hedge Fund Says Betting on Bitcoin Is like Betting on the Internet in the 90s.”
Lessons for Marketers: It’s not all business on LinkedIn. Marketers can gain attention with human interest stories, such as “Ernst & Young Offers ‘Unbelievable’ Assistance to Employee Shot during Vegas Massacre.” But marketers looking to reach financial services professionals shouldn’t stray far from Wall Street, because all of the top 10 stories that engaged financial professionals had at least one strand that tied into the finance sector.
- The 10 Most Impressive New Managing Directors at Goldman Sachs
- Banks are Actively Headhunting for Workers Again, but They Want Specific Skills – CNBC
- Goldman Banker's Great Debt to a Woman He Met in the Gym
- Ernst & Young Offers "Unbelievable" Assistance to Employee Shot During Vegas Massacre
- A Former Goldman Sachs VP who Founded a Crypto Hedge Fund Says Betting on Bitcoin is Like Betting on the Internet in the 90s
- The Head of JPMorgan’s Nearly $2 Trillion Funds Business Issued a Stark Warning for a Large Group of Wall Streeters
- When Working From Home Doesn’t Work
- There Will be Plenty of Jobs in the Future: You Just Won’t be Able to Do Them
- I'm an Adviser to the World's Richest Billionaires — Here are 5 Surprising Insights about Their Spending
- iPhone X Review Roundup — Here's What Everyone Is Saying
Topic of the Quarter: Net Neutrality
In a controversial move, the Federal Communications Commission repealed Net Neutrality rules, which potentially could change how U.S consumers receive and pay for Internet access. This complex topic generated a lot of engagement on the LinkedIn platform. The top 5 articles that LinkedIn members engaged with provide a handy overview of what the FCC’s move means and what could be next.
Lessons for Marketers: LinkedIn members are visiting the platform to reach about the important business stories of the day. They using the content published on the platform to wade through difficult issues that could impact their business. Skilled content marketers shouldn’t shy away from publishing content that offers a viewpoint or an explanation of complex and even controversial business issues.
- F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules - The New York Times
- Net Neutrality Ends and Boy, Is the Internet Enraged
- F.C.C. Announces Plan to Repeal Net Neutrality
- The FCC has unveiled its plan to repeal its net neutrality rules
- The Death of the Internet: What Happens Now?
Top Topics
The top topics that are engaging the broad audience of members on LinkedIn show the breadth of topics that interest professionals. Leadership and management continue to be the top two topics driving engagement on the platform. The crypto currency Bitcoin broke into the Top 10 for the first time, underscoring its rapid rise and demonstrating the interest it has created among LinkedIn members.
Lessons for Marketers: LinkedIn members are using the platform to become better at their jobs, advance their careers, and keep abreast of the latest developments impacting business. If content marketers can create content that will provide insight into leadership, recruiting, and networking, there’s an audience waiting for just that kind of material
Top Articles
The top article on LinkedIn for the last three months was Bill Gates’ list of 5 “amazing” books he read in 2017. Gates’ list provides great insight into the concepts the Microsoft founder thinks are important and may influence technology and the business world in the future. Other articles in the Top 10 showed that LinkedIn members seem equally interested in getting better at their jobs (“The One Behavior That Could Make Your Irreplaceable at Work”) and in finding new ones (“The One Thing You Should Always Be Sure to Say in an Interview”).
Lessons for Marketers: It’s no secret that many members use LinkedIn as a tool for seeking a new job. Savvy content marketers can leverage this fact by publishing content that helps LinkedIn members get better at their jobs and advance their careers.
- 5 Amazing Books I Read This Year (by Bill Gates)
- The One Behavior That Could Make You Irreplaceable at Work
- The One Word That Can Hurt Your Reputation at Work, According to a Google and Apple Alum
- 13 Things You Should Give Up If You Want to be Successful
- Better to Have a GOOD BOSS at a Bad Company Rather Than a BAD BOSS at a Good Company — Agree?
- What to Say When a Job Interviewer Asks, “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?”
- The Moment That Forever Changed Our Lives
- The Is the One Thing You Should Always Be Sure to Say in a Job Interview
- Layoffs Suck. Be Less of a Jerk
- Congrats! Amazon Picked Your City for HQ2. Now Get Ready for Recruiting Pain
Top Growth Topics
These topics showed the most growth on LinkedIn in the fourth quarter. The top two — evidence collection and fraud investigation — may suggest an interest in the investigations of the Trump Administration. Automotive Sales’ position as hot growth topic suggests that sluggish sales in the car industry were attracting the attention of LinkedIn members. Additionally, two coding languages — Sinatra and PRINCE2 — showed that technology remains a core interest of LinkedIn members. (We have less data on how popular the performers who share names with this software are with members).
Lessons for Marketers: The topics that interest LinkedIn members are not static. Like the business world and technology, new topics constantly enter the conversation on the platform. The most effective content marketers are keep their fingers on the pulse of the many discussions taking place on the platform and entering the conversation when they have something useful to say.
Content Insights Quarterly Methodology
*Top Topics: These are the topics that have the most engagement on the LinkedIn platform; engagement is defined as any of the following actions: click, like, share, comment.
**Top Growth Topics are the tagged content topics that grown in engagement from the last 6 months of 2016 compared to all of 2017
***Top Articles are ranked by total number of engagements (click, like, share, comment) with that article in the quarter.