LinkedIn recently announced a new feature that can help companies maximize their social media strategies with visual content. LinkedIn Project Manager Udi Milo posted an article on the professional networking site’s blog telling users to “display it” instead of just “saying it” on their pages.
With this new feature, LinkedIn users can build out their pages with rich digital content that complements the information already hosted on their profiles. Analysts can post snippets of annual reports, graphic designers can display infographics and creative directors can showcase images of their work via this new LinkedIn function.
Although the move was meant to help professionals 
better communicate their experiences and skills through engaging imagery, it may ultimately serve a larger purpose in their social media marketing plans. It’s well known that visual images draw more clicks than text-only content, but a recent Brafton article explains that certain types of graphic content are gaining attention for their exceptional effectiveness. Brafton covered a Submit In Me case study, which revealed that a company’s infographic generated more than 5,000 views and 50 backlinks in five days.
Creating custom infographics to share on companies’ websites and post to LinkedIn pages not only gives regular viewers more engaging content, but it can also boost pages’ reputations by building backlinks that score higher on Google’s search results. This can even be advantageous for companies that may not think their products and services are natural fit for visual marketing.
Big-ticket items like infographics should be part of a content marketing strategy because they attract larger audiences, provide valuable information to viewers and earn shares. To create engaging graphic content, the source recommends companies put a new spin on ideas that have proven successful in the past, or take the risk and create something unconventional that will draw major interest.
