By harnessing the tools and connections of powerhouse social media platform LinkedIn, you can generate more leads and improve online engagement with your business.
However, marketing on this professional networking site is different to other social media platforms, so it pays to adopt a different approach. Here are some effective strategies you can use to get started on this platform and boost your online marketing efforts in the process.
Build and optimise your personal LinkedIn profile
Whether you need to create one from scratch or haven’t looked at the one you created in a few months, it’s essential to fine-tune your own personal profile before moving to your company page or any kind of posting or promotion.
Why? Because like any other social media platform, LinkedIn is about people. While it may be a networking site for business professionals, people don’t connect with businesses or brands – they connect with other people. Users checking out your company page will visit your page to find out more about who is behind your business, so you definitely want your profile to align with your company and what it represents.
Like any other social media platform, LinkedIn is about people.
Here are some tips:
- Craft an engaging summary that tells people who you are and what you do.
- Outline your previous experience and attach links or files as examples.
- Gather references from former colleagues to provide social proof of your skills.
- Grow your network by connecting with others in your industry.
- Sprinkle in a touch of personality. Is there a cool organisation you volunteer for in your spare time, or a cause you’re passionate about? Talk about it!
Build and optimise your company page
Your company page should inform people about your business, what it does and its core values. Because these pages appear on search engine results pages, incorporating keywords and search terms relevant to your industry will make it more likely people will find your page in Google’s search results.
In addition to optimising your company page for Google, you should post consistently to your page – LinkedIn recommends at least once every weekday. You could post your own updates and content, such as behind-the-scenes videos of your staff, as well as content created by others. A mix of both is ideal, so you can show that you have insights to share as well as a sound knowledge of what’s happening in your industry.
Post consistently to your page – LinkedIn recommends at least once every weekday.
Produce compelling content
Creating content on LinkedIn is a great way to demonstrate your thought leadership and knowledge of your industry. Plus if others comment on or share your content, you’ll ensure it gets seen by people outside of your network, which can build your connections who’ll bring in new ideas (and potentially new customers, too). Ensure every post includes an engaging image, as according to LinkedIn’s data, posts with images get 98 percent more comments. Not great at writing? Film yourself. Video content is more engaging anyway, and it performs really well on LinkedIn.
The key thing to remember is that all content you share needs to provide value. Offer top tips that will help others in your industry or teach them something new, or pose a question to engage your network and encourage interaction.
Advertise with sponsored content, text ads and InMail
You can get in front of even more people by advertising on LinkedIn. As far as cost goes it’s one of the more expensive platforms, but you get your money’s worth with its fantastically detailed targeting that really helps maximise the success of your sponsored content or text ads.
You can also get directly into the inboxes of other LinkedIn users by producing engaging messages that promote offers or events through sponsored InMail – personalised messages that are delivered to LinkedIn members you select through detailed targeting when they are active on the platform. You can personalise these messages, and as they’re sent from your personal LinkedIn account you maintain that human-to-human connection.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media marketing with LinkedIn.
Have a chat to us about how we can help.
