As a business owner, you should be focusing on ways you can grow your business through LinkedIn as it would allow you to build brand awareness and generate sales leads. LinkedIn is a platform that can connect your business with more than 450 million professionals worldwide. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, LinkedIn is different from other social media platforms. It is a professional social media network that can ultimately allow you to establish strategic partnerships across the world, making your business more recognised. However, you may be asking yourself just how you should be using LinkedIn to grow your business. Find out ten tips that will allow you to utilise LinkedIn in the most optimised way.
1. Create your own LinkedIn profile
As a business, it is crucial to create a company page on LinkedIn as this gives users a way to navigate to your company when they want to find out more about your brand. To create your LinkedIn company page, you will need your company logo as your profile picture, a cover image that will make your page more interesting, and your company description information. Profiles are where first impressions are formed, where people decide whether or not your brand speaks to them. Therefore, it is essential that your LinkedIn company page truly reflects your brand. Furthermore, make sure your company page is constantly updated by adding new business information, such as company achievements.
2. Post relevant content on your LinkedIn profile
This is a very important step as it will showcase your company’s knowledge base. You have to build your business presence by posting opportunities for possible clients to learn more about your business and the industry you are in. This is achieved by posting content that will invoke the interest of your target audience. Along with posting interesting content, you need to also make sure that each post is eye catching and accurate.
3. Define your target audience
Defining your business goals is a good place to define your target audience. By understanding who you are as a brand and what you want to achieve will make it easier for you to decide who your LinkedIn target is. You should be considering:
- What kind of jobs your target audience does
- What kind of businesses they are interested in on LinkedIn
- What kind of LinkedIn posts they like or share
- What kind of products or services they are looking for
Once you have done some research and you have the information you need, you will be able to know exactly who you are targeting and what kind of information you should be posting on your company LinkedIn profile.
4. Optimise your company page for easy search
Google previews up to 156 characters of your page so it is important that your description on your company profile leads to powerful keyword-rich copy. These keywords need to be in line with what you offer and what your target audience expects. On LinkedIn, people can search for companies by keyword so include words and phrases that describe your business, expertise, and industry focus.
5. Adding company page followers
It is important to have as many company page followers as possible due to the fact that it increases your potential reach with every update you publish. As a start, all of your employees should be following your company LinkedIn profile as they will be able to share your content with their networks, promoting your company page. You can then advertise your company page using newsletters, emails, website blog posts, etc. that prompt people to follow and view your company LinkedIn profile. You can also add a “Follow” button on your website that will direct people to your LinkedIn profile.
6. Promote conversations
Posting about topics that your followers find interesting and relevant is the most effective way to start conversations, driving word of mouth and engagement. You can share company and industry news, and you can ask your followers to weigh in or comment. This will make your followers feel valued and may even encourage them to contact your company, potentially turning into a sale or conversion.
7. Add images to stand out
To stand out in LinkedIn newsfeeds, you can add an image or some type of rich-media so that your posts are not static or bland. Images generally result in a 98% higher comment rate. In general, people process images faster than text so it makes sense that posts with images have more viewers than posts with text only do. You can add links to YouTube that can play directly from LinkedIn feeds, which usually result in a 78% share rate.
8. Sponsor your best content
Sponsored content is LinkedIn’s premier advertising format. Sponsored content lets you set your own budget and choose between (CPC) Cost Per Click or (CPM) Cost Per Impression. It also allows you to promote your content directly in the feeds of the professionals you want to reach on LinkedIn. You can use sponsored content by tracking the number of leads you are getting from your ads and attract followers by getting your company profile in front of more people.
9. Utilise LinkedIn advert campaigns
Utilising advert campaigns in LinkedIn will allow you to reach your customers in a more targeted, controlled way. Whether your goal is leads, brand awareness, or conversions, LinkedIn has campaign options to suit your requirements. Once you have explored these options that LinkedIn offers, it is important to identify your advert campaign goals as it will allow you to decide just what message you are trying to get across.
10. Make use of LinkedIn Analytics
Once your page has been set up, you will also need to monitor your target audiences’ behaviours and preferences. LinkedIn offers various analytic platforms to help you, such as LinkedIn Company Page Analytics which help companies monitor and optimise their campaign performance. LinkedIn also offers LinkedIn Campaign Manager which can help you improve your paid campaign performance along with your conversation tracking.
Start promoting
Many business professionals think that LinkedIn is only a platform for job hunters and recruiters. They, therefore, miss out on the benefits of the platform. LinkedIn offers opportunities for businesses to reach out to their followers with messages that are relevant, targeted, and strategic. Hence, with a well maintained company profile on LinkedIn, you can take your business to new heights.
If you are looking at enhancing your LinkedIn profile with rich content, contact us. We can carry out effective social media marketing allowing you to have the most optimised LinkedIn profile.
Further reading
- https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/how-to-market-on-linkedin
- https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/10/understanding-market-business-linkedin/
- http://www.jointviews.com/blog/linkedin-marketing-strategy/
