How to use LinkedIn for business
Unfamiliar with LinkedIn marketing techniques and tricks?
Let’s not waste any time – read on to learn LOCALiQ’s LinkedIn marketing 101.
Using LinkedIn For Marketing: is it for me?
LinkedIn is often described as Facebook for your career, and contrary to what people think, LinkedIn works well for ALL businesses – not just the more ‘corporate’ types. From dentists to lawyers to estate agencies, whatever your business may be – it is better to have a LinkedIn business profile than not!
How can LinkedIn help my business?
LinkedIn is brilliant for promoting yourself professionally and commercially. The network will assist you in doing the following:
- Increase your brand awareness to a b2b audience
- Improve your business reputation professionally
- Generate business prospects and leads
- Foster new b2b and b2c relationships
- Provide additional customer service
- Network with other companies and professionals
- Heighten your local and/or national business presence
- Keep an eye on competitors!
- Find and hire staff members
- Stay on top of your game with industry news and insights
- Establish yourself as a thought-leader within your industry
- Drive business collaborations and partnerships
- Help you make MONEY!
That’s a lot of LinkedIn benefits, right? If that hasn’t convinced you to head to LinkedIn and create a profile, we don’t know what will!
Marketing on LinkedIn: how to get started
Firstly if you’re a business, you need a snazzy and jazzy business profile! Here’s how to create your LinkedIn company page.
1. Register with LinkedIn
2. Under the ‘Work’ button on the top right, select the ‘create company page’ option
3. Select your company type
4. Fill in your page identity, company and profile details – ensure you complete it all, no one is impressed by an unfinished profile.
5. Select the verification option once you have filled in all of your details
6. Click ‘create!’
Voila!
Please note that sometimes you will receive an error message if your company page doesn’t meet the page requirements, such as being an actual registered company with a functioning business email, or if you have exceeded your limit for page creation!
Once you have created your business profile, start promoting your business on LinkedIn by doing the following.
11 smart ways to use LinkedIn to promote your business
1. Start conversations with other companies and businesses
Follow their pages and comment your thoughts on their posts. Start conversations to boost connections and network, both on-page and via private message. Always be pleasant and helpful – your business reputation is at stake here and digital footprints are traceable forever!
Ask questions too – people love being asked questions as it makes them feel interesting and important, and it’s a great way to start engaging with like-minded companies and individuals.
2. Curate high-quality long-form posts
LinkedIn can also serve as a mini-blog and you should use this to show off your knowledge and expertise. Break longer posts down into bullet points and chunks – offer bitesize pieces on industry topics and share your opinions.
Use your longer-form posts to establish yourself as a thought leader and build your business reputation.
Furthermore, you can write and publish articles on LinkedIn, which is another fantastic feature enabling companies and individuals to demonstrate their opinions and knowledge on industry topics. If you want to excel, publishing your own high-quality LinkedIn articles gives you that extra business boost.
3. Never reshare content without adding your opinion
You’re not getting paid to promote another business’s content, so whilst you should reshare suitable content that you deem insightful, useful, or relevant, always write your own thoughts alongside any material you reshare – offer your own professional outlook to establish yourself as a go-to within your business vertical.
Don’t forget to tag relevant businesses and connections within your posts too, to boost your digital presence, build connections and generate engagement.
4. Think before you create automated messages
When was the last time an automated, generated sales-led message that landed in your inbox added value to you in some way or made you smile? Probably never.
They lack personalisation, are often heavily sales orientated which is a major business turn off.
People want tailored, authentic and HUMANISED marketing, so if you’re going to direct message your connections and followers, you should either use a people-centric, helpful automated message or you should dedicate time to personalised messages that are tailored towards individuals – preferably with their name, these are people, not numbers!
5. Share customer reviews, success stories and testimonials
To build your business reputation, use LinkedIn as a platform to show potential b2b prospects just what you are capable of!
Share your testimonials and reviews, your success stories (including the small wins because they are valuable too) awards, employee achievements and accolades.
6. Offer insights into your behind-the-scenes business world
Share highlights from a typical day at the office, meet the team profiles, industry event photographs – if you did it for business, then it’s got a place on LinkedIn.
This helps create a personable, authentic persona on LinkedIn and makes you seem interesting to your connections and potential leads.
7. Use LinkedIn SlideShare
Upload professional presentations, infographics, documents, and videos to LinkedIn SlideShare to offer value to your audience and build your reputation professionally.
Your company page should act as a catalogue of resources for prospective customers and leads.
Show off your skillset and knowledge by using LinkedIn’s Slideshare feature,and offer free resources to potential customers. Establish yourself as the go-to within your business vertical through the curation and sharing of excellent content and takeaways for you audience.
8. Take the LinkedIn exams and show off!
Show that you are the real deal by taking (and passing, hopefully) LinkedIn’s exams and gaining your profile page badges. This proves to your followers and potential leads that you aren’t lying when you say you are a boss at Excel.
There are a lot of cowboys out there so prove yourself with reputable accreditation. Upload certificates and link accredited badges you have earned. Don’t be humble – LinkedIn is a platform to strut your stuff on, professionally.
9. Host events on LinkedIn
Sure, you may start off with few attendees, but you can use LinkedIn’s events feature to join and host your own events on LinkedIn.
There are a lot of virtual industry events to be found and attended via LinkedIn, which are amazing for networking, making handy contacts and learning new things!
Furthermore, you can host your own ‘entry point’ events which brief potential customers and b2b clients about the products and services you offer, and kickstart the consumer journey down the conversion funnel.
Hosting your own company’s virtual and digital events, and speaking publicly at them, will build your brand awareness and business authority.
10. Advertising campaigns on LinkedIn
Advertising on LinkedIn is really like advertising on any other social platform; so, if you’re a dab hand at running Facebook ads, this will be a breeze for you. Simply select ‘Advertise’ at the top of page, and create a campaign for brand awareness, traffic or lead generation.
With LinkedIn you can target users that you want to see your ads based on industry, education or even job title. This is alongside the usual targeting options such as geographic location, age, gender etc.
Now, do bear in mind that the CPCs on LinkedIn are more expensive than other sites due to the competitive nature of the platform; you’re going to be looking at around £7 on average. But, if it drives that all important valuable traffic to your site and high-quality leads, then it’s definitely worth the expenditure.
11. Embark on a digital clean-up
It’s great having an exceptional, strong LinkedIn page, but how does your business fare across other channels? Everyone Google’s everybody nowadays, so Google your company and employees and ensure your business is painted in the best light across the internet and the networks you use.
Remember, a half-finished profile gives potential clients and partners the impression that you aren’t bothered – it makes you look unprofessional and lazy, so ensure that whilst there is nothing incriminating online, you also have fully completed, all-star profiles across all social media channels and websites elsewhere.
Want to see how you measure up online?
Take our Grader tool test using cutting-edge technology to uncover your digital presence score.
For more information on social media advertising and marketing, talk to us today!
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