We all know that LinkedIn is a vital social channel for engineering and technology companies to reach potential customers and maintain existing client relationships. But businesses sometimes fail to approach LinkedIn strategically, using their company page simply as a noticeboard – for corporate announcements, product launch releases, and recruitment.
While these updates have a place, on their own they make for a weak social media strategy. And, for businesses operating in specialist B2B markets, the real value of LinkedIn lies in its capacity to help you communicate relevant content to your key audiences – showing that you can solve their problems. When B2B purchasing decisions are increasingly informed by customer research undertaken before any direct contact, your customers’ perception of your social media presence is a critical element of your marketing mix.
Online research – the first step on a B2B buyer’s journey
94% of B2B buying groups rank their preferred vendors before making first contact with a supplier, and buyers will initiate the first interaction in 79% of cases, according to recent research.[1]
This shows that potential customers are likely to have already formed an opinion about potential suppliers or partners before ever speaking to sales teams. Your website, your technical literature, industry coverage, and social media activity all contribute to building their perception of your company, and how effectively you could meet their needs.
For an engineering company, this creates an ideal opportunity to demonstrate technical competence and to differentiate your company from the competition before a sales conversation takes place. It can help pre-qualify those sales calls, enabling you to get straight down to the business of how you can help.
Framing technical content to meet your customers’ needs
Given the role social media – and LinkedIn in particular – plays in building customer awareness, it’s clear that, for engineering and technology companies, a post explaining an engineering problem, discussing legislative changes, or examining a new technology is likely to have greater value than a post that simply announces the availability of a new product. The key here is – why? What’s the interest to your customers? And what content resonates with them?
There’s a common misconception that technical subjects are unsuitable for social media posts because they are too complicated or too specialised. However, in practice, the technical nature of the subject can be an advantage, provided the information is presented clearly, taking the right approach – the one that chimes with your customers’ interests and needs.
Approach one: a pump manufacturer publishes a post stating that its latest pump offers improved flow control.
Approach two: the same company, promoting the same product, explains how pulsation is generated in conventional pumping systems, why this can affect sensitive processes, and the engineering approaches available to reduce the problem identified .[2]
The second approach provides information that is useful independently of your company’s product. And it clearly demonstrate the knowledge and expertise behind the development and functionality of the technology.
This distinction is critical to a well-thought out and well-implemented social media strategy. Social content does not– indeed, should not- always be directly promotional to support commercial objectives.
Where does good content come from? Or, how to utilise your greatest assets
Engineering businesses often have a considerable amount of potential content already available to them, particularly through their technical staff.
Engineers regularly deal with questions from customers, investigate unusual applications, solve process problems and evaluate new technologies. These experiences can provide the basis for some of your most impactful and insightful social media content.
“What do we want to promote this month?” is not the basis of a well-planned, interesting social strategy. Rather, asking questions such as “What is the most common mistake customers make when specifying this equipment?” or “What has changed most significantly in this process over the last five years?” can help produce far more valuable and engaging social content.
This also gives technical employees an opportunity to communicate their expertise directly. LinkedIn’s own research indicates that 73% of B2B decision-makers consider thought leadership a more trustworthy basis for assessing a company’s capabilities than marketing materials and product sheets, alone.[3]
For specialist engineering businesses, this credibility is particularly valuable. And your people are key.
Growing your social profile through your people
Company pages are only one part of the social picture. Engineering companies should also consider how individual employees can contribute to their LinkedIn presence.
A technical director commenting on an industry development, for example, can communicate expertise in an authoritative and authentic way that is almost impossible to reproduce through corporate messaging alone. And employees have their own professional networks, potentially extending the reach of your company’s content and growing your business’ social profile organically.
This does not mean employees should simply repost company announcements. Original commentary, technical observations, and professional experience are generally more useful because they give audiences a reason to follow the individual as well as the organisation.
A company page can provide the central source of information, while employees can provide additional perspectives and distribution, providing depth and breadth to your social media strategy.
Our key takeaways
Companies are expected to have a social media presence, but this shouldn’t be the sole reason for your business to have a LinkedIn profile. it is a powerful tool when approached as part of a broader approach to communications.
The most effective content answers questions, explains developments or provides insight into problems that matter to the company’s target audience.
Engineering companies already have access to a significant source of this information: their own technical knowledge and experience. The challenge is to identify the subjects that will be useful to customers, communicate them clearly and publish them consistently.
Rather than asking, “What should we post this week?”, a more productive question may be:
“What does our business know that our customers would benefit from understanding?”
That question is much more likely to produce useful content – and a LinkedIn presence that does more than simply announce what the company is doing.
And, when investing time and effort into developing your LinkedIn content, remember that your employees have their own professional networks: engaging them with your social strategy can help grow your company’s presence to create new business opportunities.
If you’d like to explore how Aro could help you optimise your LinkedIn content, or just to have an informal chat around generating opportunities and perfecting your online marketing, get in touch:
email info@aroprandmarketing.co.uk or phone 0117 379 0008
[1] 6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report
[2] LinkedIn, LinkedIn for Engineers: The Guide to Boost Your Career
[3] Edelman and LinkedIn, 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report.
