While we Brits might be stereotypically reserved about tooting our own horns, there’s absolutely nothing reserved about the way successful UK businesses are analysing their LinkedIn data to drive growth. As the digital landscape becomes increasingly competitive, especially in our post-Brexit economy, understanding what makes your audience tick has never been more crucial.
Let’s dive into how British businesses can make the most of LinkedIn Analytics without needing to be a data scientist or spending your entire marketing budget on fancy tools. I promise this will be more enjoyable than queuing or discussing the weather (though I reserve the right to mention both at some point).
For starters, LinkedIn’s native analytics offer a surprising wealth of information that many businesses overlook. If you’re managing a company page, you’ll find valuable insights under the “Analytics” tab, where you can examine visitor demographics, engagement rates, and follower growth. These numbers tell a story about who’s interested in your brand—and in Britain’s regionally diverse economy, this geographical data is absolute gold.
Take my client in Leeds, a manufacturing company that discovered through LinkedIn Analytics that they had an unexpected following in the West Midlands. Rather than scratching their heads and putting the kettle on, they leveraged this insight to host an industry event in Birmingham that resulted in three major contracts. Not bad for a bit of free data analysis, eh?
Engagement metrics are particularly revealing for British businesses because our professional communication style tends to differ from our American counterparts. While US companies might see high engagement on motivational content, I’ve observed that UK audiences respond better to practical, solution-oriented posts with a dash of self-deprecating humour. One London-based consultancy found their engagement rates doubled when they switched from formal corporate announcements to case studies told with a bit of wit.
Here’s a time-saving tip: use the “Update Metrics” report to identify which types of content perform best. Sort by engagement rate rather than impressions—a lesson I learned the hard way after spending three weeks producing a beautifully designed infographic that reached thousands but engaged dozens, while a hastily written post about surviving conference season with British politeness intact nearly broke our engagement records.
For those looking to recruit talent (a particular challenge in certain sectors since Brexit), the “Follower Demographics” section offers brilliant insights. A tech company in Manchester discovered that while their content was aimed at seasoned professionals, their most engaged followers were recent graduates. They pivoted their content strategy to include entry-level opportunities and mentorship programmes, which helped them address their talent pipeline challenges while building brand loyalty among emerging professionals.
Don’t overlook the “Competitor Analytics” feature, which allows you to benchmark your performance against similar businesses. This is particularly useful for British SMEs who might be competing with larger European or global players. A family-owned business in Glasgow used this feature to identify content gaps their larger competitors weren’t addressing, creating highly targeted posts about navigating UK-specific regulatory changes that established them as thought leaders in their niche.
Export your data regularly (at least quarterly) to spot long-term trends. British businesses face unique seasonal patterns—summer holidays that empty offices in August, the pre-Christmas slowdown, and the infamous “new financial year” rush in April. One financial services firm in Edinburgh used their LinkedIn Analytics exports to build a content calendar that anticipated these fluctuations, increasing their overall engagement by 37% year-on-year.
Finally, don’t forget to connect your LinkedIn analytics with your broader business metrics. A London retailer linked spikes in their LinkedIn engagement to increased footfall in their physical stores by offering LinkedIn-exclusive in-store promotions, allowing them to calculate an actual ROI from their social media efforts.
So, while we might maintain our British reserve in person, there’s no need to be reserved about diving deep into your LinkedIn Analytics. Your competitors certainly aren’t—and in today’s market, data-informed decisions are the difference between leading the charge and being left behind, much like the poor soul who misses the last tube and faces the night bus. And nobody wants that, do they?
Now, shall we talk about the weather? Only joking—I think we’ve covered quite enough for one post.