LinkedIn is an excellent tool designed for use with professionals and with the business world in mind. Although still a social media platform, which is excellent for marketing and brand building, connecting with relevant audiences and fostering engagement is pursued in a different way. Quality over quantity is the mantra and it helps think: lead generation, business to business (B2B) marketing, and meaningful interactions with a relevant professional community.
Knowing how to do this can be confusing though. I know my first experiences with LinkedIn were clunky but lucky for you, you can avoid this and go straight to being a LinkedIn expert in a few simple steps.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a professional networking social media platform, designed to support B2B marketing, as well as professionals who want to showcase their personal brand. This makes it a great place for individuals to build a professional profile and connections, and for businesses to build their brand and generate new leads. Whether this is attracting new clients or employees, finding like-minded businesses to build a community or suppliers to partner with.
The platform is an excellent tool for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. For larger businesses, it’s a great way to get business exposure and drive website traffic. While for smaller businesses it’s a great way to build a brand from scratch, launch new products to market and get feedback from others who have been around for longer. It’s also great for connecting with other brands and professionals who can help build your brand and monitoring competition.
Benefit to businesses
LinkedIn is all about networking. Unlike other social media platforms, it is designed for businesses and business professionals to connect with each other. It provides the opportunity to focus on business-related issues, as opposed to many other social media platforms where the aim is to showcase a brand and market products and services. This makes it a great tool for genuinely building business and organisational communities and networks, which can then serve to help employ new talent, gain new clients and sell products and services.
Growing your business and engaging with the business world is the goal. To do this, and to build customer confidence in your brand and business, it is essential that: your profile is up to date, you post regular and relevant content, your page participates in relevant groups and engages with questions and discussions where possible.
Creating a business page
Similar to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn provides followers with the option to like, comment, tag and share posts. Users have the option to follow a business they’re interested in, which then provides this business with the opportunity to promote and engage directly.
Setting up a business page is very simple and can be done following the below steps. However, an established personal account must be in place before a business page can be created.
- Create a company page and select your business type
- Enter in all the business details
- Click create your page
- Start building your brand
LinkedIn allows a very detailed overview of who and what the business is. A business page can include things such as:
- Industry
- Company size
- Website URL
- Description
- Logo
- Street Address
- Custom button
- Hashtags
It is good practice to include as much information as possible in each of these sections as it’s the first thing followers will see when visiting and it’s important this is on-brand.
Now it’s time to create your first post!
Forming a strategy
Having a strategy is important it is likely that the content posted to your LinkedIn page will be different to your other social media accounts. Your strategy should be made up of the following elements:
- Posts
LinkedIn is all about quality content and it’s important not to bombard your followers with lots of irrelevant content. Business professionals are busy people and will quickly unfollow if you are overdoing it with your posts. You can start by posting once a day during the week and then adjusting this to suit your following.
- Groups
Groups are a great way to grow your brand on LinkedIn. This increases your presence and leads to new followers. You can create your own group which is linked to your company page or you can join other relevant groups. Make sure you interact regularly with the group so that the business is more visible.
- Employees
The connection is key. By connecting with your employees and having them follow your business page you quickly build your network. They’re also a great resource for your brand as they represent you and can interact with you to expand your reach.
- Links
One of the quickest ways to grow your brand on LinkedIn is to create links to your company page. These can be included in other marketing activities such as a newsletter or blogs and can also be used in reverse to drive website traffic.
- Staying up to date
It’s important to keep everything up to date. This includes information on your business page, your personal page and any employees who have linked themselves to your business page.
In conclusion
LinkedIn has a different focus from your other social media, and it should be treated differently. The frequency of content is less important than quality, and posting activity needs to be relevant to the business audience it services.
If you’re finding managing this platform challenging, you are not the only one. If you get stuck and are looking for guidance, contact the Purple Giraffe team today.
