Unlike the other social networks, people come to LinkedIn for one reason – to connect with others for business-related reasons. LinkedIn is responsible for more than 80% of a business’ social media leads. All the other social media platforms put together only amount to 19.67% of leads.
Whether you are just getting started with LinkedIn or are in need of some extra advice, LinkedIn Company pages are a great tool to enhance your company’s presence and image online. LinkedIn has over 275 million business members worldwide and is now a vital way of communicating to build brand awareness and generate leads.
This guide gives tips on how to maximize the usage of this network by building and targeting connections to meet your social media goals.
Create Company Page
The home page on a LinkedIn Company Page includes a cover photo, brief description, company updates, links to products and services, links to careers, and more. The cover photo appears at the top of the home page of your LinkedIn Company Page. This image is a first way to attract a user’s interest. Choose a cover photo that is visually dynamic and grabs attention. The brief description of the page should be clear and compelling, and should speak directly at your target audience. LinkedIn only displays the first two lines of the description, so make sure it’s clear what your company does and what sets you apart from your competitors. Be sure to use keywords, so people can find your LinkedIn Company Page through relevant searches.
Establish Following
Your employees are the best place to start growing an audience. Not only are your employees your company’s biggest advocates but by adding them as followers you also reach into each of their personal networks, expanding your company page reach tremendously. Another way to grow your following is to feature your LinkedIn profile on your blog and website with incorporating the “follow” button to your website.
Publish Content
The best way to grow your audience and keep your followers is to provide them value by posting articles or company updates on a regular basis. Start creating useful, meaningful, interesting, or entertaining content that your target audience wants to read and see. Some ideas for content to share are blog posts, articles, whitepapers, research, news coverage and more. LinkedIn is also now allowing individuals to write long posts, which are searchable on and off LinkedIn, which is good for SEO. When a user posts a longform piece, everyone in their network can see that post, and LinkedIn algorithmically recommends it to other professionals interested in the same topics. Additionally, members can follow other members that are not in their network and build their own group of followers.
Engage Followers
Once you have established a following, make sure updates are consistent. From company news, thought leadership or industry expertise, keep things interesting for your audience. You can also curate content that your audience needs to see and share that with your comments, critique and explanations.
Join Groups
To use LinkedIn effectively, you need to focus on joining groups where your prospect company’s CFO or CEO may be located. LinkedIn groups vary wildly in size, but your best bet is to go for the groups between 250 and 1,000 members — smaller groups won’t have the influencer you seek, whereas your voice might get drowned out in 1,000+ member groups. Once you have joined the group, become an active participant. You can do this by sharing your company’s content and engaging in the group by providing you insights and commenting on other people’s posts. Contributing to a discussion will make both your profile or company page more visible, but also can help establish you or your company as a thought leader among other participants.
For social media programs, LinkedIn is one of the most important social media channels for B2B businesses. Not only does it help provide credibility to your business, it also gives you access to an audience that is actively interested in looking for companies to engage with. Have other thoughts or questions about LinkedIn? Ask me in the comments section and i’d be happy to provide my thoughts.
Check back in to read about building your Twitter network in Part II of this series.
