LinkedIn for Professional Services: How to Build Authority & Drive Growth

Introduction

75% of B2B buyers are utilising social media to research and communicate with vendors. Yet despite its transformative power, many professional services firms still hesitate to embrace social media fully.

When managed well, social media can put your company and services front of mind with your potential clients when they are ready to purchase. It isn’t just about broadcasting messages—it’s about building engagement, credibility, and a community that buys into your brand.

This guide offers practical insights to help firms harness social media effectively, ensuring they build authority and drive business growth.

Our Position

We’re strong believers that LinkedIn should be your primary social media channel for professional services because it offers unparalleled access to a highly engaged, professional audience. Unlike other platforms, it is specifically designed for business networking, thought leadership, and B2B marketing, making it the most effective channel for building credibility, generating leads, and fostering industry connections.

A key insight from LinkedIn’s B2B Benchmark Report is the 95-5 rule: only 5% of potential buyers are 'in-market' at any given time, while the remaining 95% represent future opportunities. Many firms overly focus on the 5%, but long-term success requires brand-building efforts that nurture your entire audience. In the same report, 7 in 10 B2B leaders allocate most of their budget to new business generation. However, rising brand-building investments highlight a growing recognition of the need to balance short-term returns with long-term growth.

Firms mustn’t forget to invest a larger share of marketing efforts in reaching the entire category, with brand advertising that resonates with future buyers, thus generating future cash flows. Growing brand awareness, establishing credibility and positioning your brand as a thought leader is critical to securing future opportunities and looking at the long-term marketing and business growth of your company.

Breaking it Down

What makes social media effective?

As we’ve already mentioned, social media isn’t just about broadcasting messages; it’s about fostering meaningful interactions. It’s also only one element of a successful marketing strategy, and you should always consider it alongside your wider marketing activity.

A good way to approach it is to keep the 4 Cs front of mind when considering your social media activity. Below we lay this strategy out for you:

• Consistency – not only do you need to consistently be sharing useful insights on social media, you all need to ensure your brand messaging aligns across email, website, and social media, maintaining a cohesive brand voice across all platforms.

• Customisation – tailor your content to each platform’s unique strengths and audience expectations. Adapt messaging for each platform: for example, LinkedIn posts should differ in tone and style from an email newsletter.

• Commitment – focus your efforts on platforms where target audiences are most engaged, investing in the platforms that align with business goals and audience behaviour. This is why we would always advocate focusing on LinkedIn as your primary social media channel.

• Caution – evaluate social media trends critically; not every viral trend suits a professional services brand. Social media comes with risks, ensure your responses align with your brand values.

Top Tips for Driving More Engagement on LinkedIn

Below some tips you can implement to grow your engagement, reach and longer term client acquisition across LinkedIn.

Create High-Quality, Engaging Content to Stand Out

What’s changing? Social media users, particularly across Europe, are paying even closer attention to the quality and creativity of brands’ posts. Sprout Social’s Q2 2024 UK Pulse Survey revealed some interesting insights into this trend of rising consumer social sophistication.

While more DIY, native-feeling content may work in the US, a whopping 89% of UK respondents care about how polished and high-quality a brand’s social media spots are – craving fresh ideas and innovative posts. Look at this in the context of professional services, and your percentage is likely even higher. When asked what encourages users to unfollow an account, nearly half (44%) of the respondents said they couldn’t stand repetitive or unoriginal content.

What should you do? Most UK users find fun, educational content from brands the most entertaining. These statistics can be translated to professional services to suggest brands aiming to attract customers can strengthen their efforts by increasing production value, getting experimental with social creative and blending promotion with education to keep their audiences hooked and happy.

Leverage Video to Enhance Thought Leadership and Credibility

In EMEA, thought leadership remains the top content strategy, particularly on LinkedIn. But an emerging trend is the growing use of video—nearly 2 in 3 B2B marketing leaders are increasing video investments. For professional services, this presents an opportunity to enhance engagement and credibility through dynamic, high-quality content.

Skills like innovative thinking and creative strategy are of great importance, with almost 7 in 10 B2B marketers in EMEA stating it as a top attribute required. Genuine, insightful content will continue to be fundamental to a successful social media marketing campaign but there’s plenty of room for innovative and creative ways of expressing this. Moreover, there is a clear trend of marketers in EMEA boosting video usage to connect with audiences. The growing desire for varied content is worth acknowledging to boost the success of efforts. Using video to connect with audiences should be equally as embraced by the professional services sector, particularly when used to promote thought leadership content.

Empower Employees to Drive Engagement Through Authentic Content

Your employees are your most underutilised marketing asset. Rather than relying solely on corporate posts, empowering employees to share insights, experiences, and company updates can significantly boost engagement and credibility. Here’s how:

• Encouraging employees to post insights and experiences – employees who share company updates in an authentic way often have higher engagement rates than corporate accounts.

• Featuring employees in branding content – like Curry’s recent employer-led campaign, companies can showcase employees in short-form videos or testimonials.

• Providing content frameworks – offering guidelines, templates, and training ensures consistency while allowing creative freedom.

Conclusion

Social media isn’t just about presence—it’s about strategic engagement. By leveraging thought leadership, video, and employee-driven content, firms can build credibility and drive long-term business growth.

Ready to take your strategy to the next level? Kanary Digital can help—get in touch for expert guidance.