Speak snapshot: what LinkedIn content is dominating the retail sector?
With seasonal shopping in full swing, what are top retail brands posting about on LinkedIn? In our latest snapshot of the social media platform, we highlight which formats, topics and themes are the most prevalent in the sector – and the most popular. To compare the latest data against your own organisation’s strategy, read on…
Here at Speak, we put together regular stats-driven snapshots to explore how some of the largest organisations are engaging with their audiences on LinkedIn.
This month, we spotlight the retail sector.
Gathered over the month of October 2023, the data highlights 173 LinkedIn posts from some of the top retail companies – including Amazon, M&S and John Lewis.
With a whopping 29.6m followers on the platform, Amazon achieved the three top-performing posts by overall engagements – but it was supermarket Lidl that ultimately took the crown for average engagement rate. This is despite having one of the lowest follower counts of the companies surveyed – suggesting that followers aren’t the only way to create significant levels of engagement on the platform.
We dive deeper into the data, highlighting the themes and topics that are dominating these organisations’ channels – and which are receiving the most (and least) engagement.
To find out what these organisations are talking about on LinkedIn and how your strategy compares, explore the key findings from our latest snapshot report below.
12 takeaways: at a glance
1. On average, the organisations in the report posted around 17 times between 1 and 31 October 2023.
2. The companies with the highest number of posts were Tesco (42 posts), M&S (38) and Asda (24).
3. Of the 173 LinkedIn posts analysed, the average number of engagements – the sum of likes, comments and reposts divided by the total number of posts – was 297. Interestingly, this figure marks a 46% increase in total engagements from posts analysed in our September review of finance sector channels.
4. The three top-performing posts based on overall engagements were all from Amazon, which had over 28m followers more than the company with the second-largest follower count. The posts were a live-action video highlighting one of its US offices (5,481 engagements), a multi-image post about colleagues marking Halloween (3,174) and another multi-image post showcasing a community event at a wind farm (3,060).
5. Despite Amazon leading in overall engagements, the company had the lowest average engagement rate (0.007) – indicating that followers are only as impactful as their interest in your page. The top three brands based on average engagement rate were Lidl (0.14), Co-op (0.09) and Asda (0.08).
6. The top two posts by engagement rate came from Lidl. Both were single-image posts focused on the supermarket’s achievements: its place as the third-largest supermarket in London, UK, and its win as ‘Supermarket of the Year’ at the 2023 Retail Industry Awards. The third best-performing post came from Asda – a multi-image post celebrating new stores that had been opened.
7. Single image was by far the most common format, used in one-third of all posts (32.4%), followed by live-action video (24.9%). The prevalence of these formats is evidenced by them taking the top spots on the LinkedIn channels tracked in our monthly snapshots so far.
8. Despite the fact that over half the posts used single image or live-action video, only single image was among the top-performing formats by engagement rate. The top-performing format was multi-image (0.089) – followed closely by single-image posts (0.088) and then text-only posts (0.057).
9. The content formats that received the lowest engagement scores were polls (0.023) and quote infographics (0.029).
10. The most common themes among the surveyed posts centred on employees (46.82%), careers (32.95%) and the companies’ own business (25.43%).
11. The best-performing themes by overall engagements, meanwhile, focused on the companies’ own business (22,679), featured employees (20,118) and shed light on awareness days (9,948).
12. In the reporting month, Amazon had the highest number of followers on LinkedIn (29.6m followers), followed by Tesco (679,383) and then M&S (516,115). Those with the fewest followers were Lidl (161,069), Co-op (162,991) and Morrisons (216,594).
To access data from the full snapshot report, enquire about bespoke data reporting or find out how to improve your brand’s content engagement, contact Gabrielle from our client services team at gabriellebridle@speakmedia.co.uk or on LinkedIn.