LinkedIn Ads

The Water Cooler: What LinkedIn Members Are Reading on the Platform (and You Should, Too)

Welcome to the first edition of the LinkedIn Marketing Blog’s “The Water Cooler.” The water cooler, of course, is that spot in the office where you and your co-workers discuss business, fashion, sports, and entertainment.

The LinkedIn platform is fast becoming the virtual water cooler of the global business world. Members are reading an increasing number of articles on LinkedIn. In fact, the number of updates viewed in the LinkedIn feed have jumped 60% year-over-year.

As a marketer, knowing what business professionals are reading and interested in can be incredibly valuable information. It can give you powerful insights into their mindset.  So we took a closer look at the articles that members reading on LinkedIn. Below, you can see the list of the top 10 articles LinkedIn members engaged with in December.

The articles attracting the attention of LinkedIn members have two common threads. First, LinkedIn members engaged with articles about company culture. The top article in December, “Be the Spark,” examined the power of gratitude at work. Other articles in the top 10 showcased employees as a crucial assets (“Your Most Important Assets Aren’t Your Clients; It’s Your Employees”); celebrated diversity (“Black Woman Named Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Making History”); and pondered empathic leadership (“Leading From Hurt Versus Leading From Heart.”) Second, LinkedIn members engaged with articles featuring advice from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, which indicates business professionals are always looking for ways to improve themselves and the companies they work for.   

Lessons for Marketers: As marketers, it’s always tempting for us to focus our messages on the products and services we offer. But we should always be thinking about our potential customers and what their needs and wants are. With the articles they engage with on LinkedIn, business professionals show us that they want to better themselves and work in positive environments. If we present what we’re marketing in that frame, we have a much better chance of attracting our target audience’s attention. 

Top 10 Articles LinkedIn Members Engaged With on the Platform in December

  1. Be the Spark By Diane Fennig
  2. 5 Books I Loved in 2018 By Bill Gates
  3. Your Most Important Assets Aren’t Your Clients; It’s Your Employees By Brigette Hyacinth
  4. Black Woman Named Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Making History By Teddy Grant, Black Press USA
  5. Happy Employees Are More Productive. As Simple as That! Agree? By Oleg Vishnepolsky
  6. The World’s Most Successful People Don’t Actually Start Work at 4 a.m. They Wake and Work Whenever the (Heck) They Decide, By Jeff Haden, Inc.
  7. What I Learned at Work This Year By Bill Gates
  8. Warren Buffet Says You Should Hire People With These 3 Traits, but Only 1 Will Point to a Truly Successful Employee By Marcel Schwantes, Inc.
  9. When People Ask How You Are, Stop Saying ‘Busy’ By Robert Glazer
  10. Leading From Hurt Versus Leading From Heart By Brene Brown

To keep pace with the latest trends in digital marketing, subscribe today to the LinkedIn Marketing Blog.