5 reasons why LinkedIn is the trusted platform for managing your brand reputation

Marketers have long seen the connection between trust in social platforms and their power to establish a trusted brand reputation on those platforms. While LinkedIn’s own research and the success of marketers on the LinkedIn platform has borne this out, the 2019 Business Insider Digital Trust report provides more proof. Here are five key reasons to make LinkedIn your trusted platform for managing your brand reputation. 

1. Low trust can lead to platform abandonment.

According to Business Insider, low trust can erode ad effectiveness and user engagement – and even drive some people to completely abandon a social platform. The top reason people take that action – selected by 56% of respondents – is feeling their personal data isn’t fully protected. Overall, LinkedIn was the most trusted platform for the third year in a row — and claimed the top spot on half of Business Insider’s pillars of trust. That means more members join and stay for the long haul, driving more opportunities for engagement initially and over time.

2. People feel LinkedIn is a place to discover and share high-quality content.

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer found that two-thirds of adults get their news from social media – but 73% of people are worried that fake news is being weaponized. The good news is that people trust LinkedIn not to show deceptive content such as fake news: LinkedIn remained #1 when it comes to Legitimacy in The Business Insider report. In fact, more people this year over last – 69% vs. 63% – said the LinkedIn platform “was either slightly or not at all likely to show them deceptive content like fake news." Put another way, more people are turning to LinkedIn to find and share quality content.

3. The professional LinkedIn setting is less susceptible to deceptive content.

LinkedIn has long said that the professional nature of the LinkedIn platform sets it apart. LinkedIn is where, by far, the largest number of professionals gather to stay connected and informed, advance their careers, and work smarter. As of November 2019, more than 660+ million people in more than 200 countries are LinkedIn members. 

The professional nature of the LinkedIn network is what that makes the LinkedIn platform less susceptible to deceptive content according to Business Insider. In fact, the report found just a 2% chance for members to post deceptive content on LinkedIn compared to a 42% chance on Facebook. As Business Insider says, “…because it is primarily a utility for professional networking, recruiting, and brand building, LinkedIn's own user community could be more motivated to keep it clean than other social platforms. LinkedIn also has a team of human editors who manually vet news content for the platform, which CEO Jeff Weiner says is ‘arguably the most important’ part of keeping the platform clean of misinformation."

4. The perception of safety on LinkedIn is high.

Those surveyed for the Business Insider report rated LinkedIn “high” on Community, which was defined as “making people feel safe to share and post.”

49% of respondents said they feel very or extremely safe participating or posting on LinkedIn. As Business Insider explained, “Fostering meaningful connections with fellow users on the platform and making them feel secure in joining and engaging with an online community is an important facet of digital trust.” Just as importantly, the report says: “The degree to which users feel safe on a given platform is an indicator of their willingness to engage with platform content, including ads.” 

Perhaps this sense of safety helps explain the booming levels of engagement on LinkedIn, including double-digit growth year over year in mobile sessions and in newsfeed engagement.

5. To preserve site safety, people want stricter policies that govern user-generated content and want social networks to focus on moderation.

44% of respondents indicated that they would feel safer if platforms enforced stricter policies around user-generated content (UGC). Meanwhile, 37% said they would feel safer if platforms committed more resources to moderation. 

As mentioned above, LinkedIn’s editors vet content to weed out misinformation. And many marketers are already effectively taking advantage of user-generated content on LinkedIn. At a time when trust is at a premium, this makes good business sense. Seventy-six percent of users believe that UGC is more honest and valuable than brand-created content. And that means sharing UGC helps establish trust in your brand.