How to use Linkedin for your business

Skybridge Capital, a small investment firm with nearly 70 employees on LinkedIn, has about 15000 followers. 

Another small business, named Freshbooks, has built a community of over 45000 people on LinkedIn. 

Big firms like Adobe showcase their thought leadership qualities on LinkedIn to nurture their audience of 3 million people and be up to date with the trends in the industry. 

From tech companies to artisans, small businesses and big firms are leveraging the power of LinkedIn to generate more leads, bring more revenue, and be the best amongst consumers. 

This article will make you believe how you can be one of them soon. 

Why is Linkedin important? 

Did you know that many companies claim that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn?

Of course, you are going to reap the benefits of having a professional voice on LinkedIn. Your personal brand and brand voice will shine through if you follow some strategies that we mention later in this article. But you need to know why you are doing it and what you can expect from it. 

Here are a few things other brands have gained through LinkedIn- 

1. LinkedIn profiles are google searchable. When a user looks up your company’s name, they will have access to your website (if you have any) as well as your Linkedin page. 

This in itself has some further advantages- 

a. Shows your credibility through the content you have shared. 

b. Opportunity to showcase your professionalism 

c. Your customers have a better understanding of the voice behind your brand, i.e., YOU. 

2. LinkedIn focuses on people more than products. This is true for no other social media platform. You can bring bright spotlights over the ethos of your brand here. 

3. Linkedin focuses on building relationships and connections, making it unique from other social media platforms. These connections could be future employees, coworkers,  clients, or just silent contributors. The scope is enormous. 

It is rather obvious why over 90% of marketing executives rate Linkedin as the best place to find high-quality content. 

For example, Amazon posts a variety of content on LinkedIn. These posts range from job openings to employee stories and even promotions of the products. 

With this, Amazon showcases its expertise in the field and how it leads in technology. You will be able to find a few advertisements, but most of their content focuses on the people working at Amazon. This creates a strong sense of personalization.

4. LinkedIn provides additional data on company pages. You can view metrics like demographic information of your followers. This will help you identify and understand your customers better.  

5. For small company pages, LinkedIn offers a huge benefit in addition to the ones mentioned. 

Targeted Marketing allows you to search for professionals in your industry worldwide and narrow them down according to job titles, location, and much more. Now you know how to look for people you want to work with. 

Creating a LinkedIn business profile –

1. Add details – 

Visit the Linkedin pages section and select the category of the business. 

There are four categories- 

1. Small business – Fewer than 200 employees 
2. Medium business- More than 200 employees 
3. Showcase pages- Sub-pages associated with an existing page 
4. Educational institution – Schools and Universities 

Now fill in company details. 

Other details you would be asked to fill in this step are- 

• Name 
• Linkedin Public URL 
• Website 
• Company details – includes your industry type, company size, and company type 

The next step is to upload a company logo and add a tagline. 

Make sure that the logo you upload here matches your core brand colors and the tagline is interesting. 

TIP- In the tagline, write the problem that your brand solves. 

For example, The tagline of Adidas is – Through sport, we have the power to change lives. #ImpossibleIsNothing

2. Complete all details 

• Company description- Another part where you can maximize your SEO. This part also shows up on google searches, so be cautious while writing it. 

• Hashtags – Hashtags that are relevant to your niche make your page more searchable.

• Cover photo – A professional cover photo increases the credibility of your brand. You can create one through tools like Canva. 

• Custom button – You can choose the CTA you want your readers to opt for. 

You can add additional information such as language and location to target your audience in a better way.

3. Share your page – Share your Linkedin address with your audience on other social media platforms to attract them to Linkedin. 

Linkedin Marketing tips

1. Create good content 

Creating content on LinkedIn will do wonders for your company. It will attract more and more people to your company, educate them about your products and make them aware of your presence. 

Types of content you can put up on LinkedIn- 

• Blog posts – These could be in-depth articles about your products, services, or team members. 

• Industry research and news – The aim of this type of content is to be in sync with your competitors and show your professionalism. 

• How to type posts – These listicles can solve a problem, tell the audience the pros and cons of a product, or how to use a particular service for maximum benefit. The idea is to educate the customers and build a good relationship with them. 

• Quick tips – For lazy days, you can just share some quick tips about general queries and issues that your audience faces. 

• Photo and video updates – On some days, you can have a little fun with your Linkedin page. Show your customers the faces behind your brand. Show how your products are built. Show places you source your materials from. 

This type of content really builds personalization. 

• Company updates – share the progress of your company in the last month. Share new ideas you are going to implement. This makes you accountable to your audience, and they feel more valued and connected to the company. 

TIP: Make your content personalized. Your audience wants to know what’s happening behind the scenes. 

2. Build a content strategy – 

You might get a little overwhelmed by a heavy word like “strategy,” but it is not as hard as it sounds. You can build it in the following 6 steps- 

• Recognize your target audience- 

The first and the most crucial part of your LinkedIn journey is this. If you get confused, think of your target customer base. That is your target audience as well. 

• Outline your objective- 

You need to know what returns are you expecting with the effort you are putting into your Linkedin account. 

These returns could be building brand awareness, reaching potential customers, building new relationships, or just creating credibility and showcasing your professionalism. 

Defining objectives will make further steps easy by ten folds. 

• Decide your posting times and content types – 

Posting at least 3 to 4 times a week is recommended as that would keep your name at the top of your customer’s mind. But nothing less than this. 

You also need the type of content you will be able to curate consistently. For example- 

Blog- 2- 3 times a week 

Quick updates – once every two days 

Employee stories- once a week

TIP- Consider posting only during business hours. This increases the chances of the content reaching the target audience. 

When a small set of audience likes your content, the algorithm pushes it to more people. These small sets of people are your connections.

 

• Connections- 

The most important part of your LinkedIn strategy is building connections. These connections are much like people who follow you on other social media platforms.

But on LinkedIn, connecting is a two-way street. If your immediate connections engage with your posts, connections of your connections will be able to see your posts. 

Always try to connect with your targeted audience and build a relationship with them. The network on Linkedin will help you in more than one way, so narrow down a connection-building strategy and have it in place. 

• Social selling- 

Interact with warm leads instead of investing your time in cold calls. 

What does this mean? 

With LinkedIn, you can identify similarities with other brands, people and approach them with personalized messages. This increases the conversion rate of these leads exponentially. 

Showing interest in other people’s posts and viewpoints and then offering help is called social selling. Social selling leaders claim to have 45 percent more sales per quarter than by using the cold outreach strategies. 

3. Use LinkedIn Live 

Would you believe me if I said you could leverage LinkedIn live to drive more traffic to your page? 

While all other social media platforms have always had a Live streaming feature, LinkedIn is fairly new to the game. Linkedin launched its live-streaming feature in 2019, and this feature was opened to businesses pages in 2020. 

So you will have the Linkedin algorithm favoring you for using a new feature and additional benefits. 

You might have to submit an application to Linkedin to become a live broadcaster and then connect with a third-party broadcasting tool. You can use tools such as streamyard or Sociallive. 

Following are the events you can use Linkedin live for: 

• Virtual events – Virtual events are a really great way to engage with your professional audience. Engaging with the audience in real-time builds a sense of connection with the customer. 

• Recruiting – You will have not only more customers but also more potential talent wanting to join your company after creating your LinkedIn page. You can show in real-time what the process behind the screens is like. This instills a sense of transparency and trust amongst potential employees. 

• Thought leadership – To always be a step ahead of your competitors means to always showcase yourself as the industry leader. You can host lives educating your audience about our industry and products, reacting to or promoting views of industry experts. 

• Announce a new product or partnership – By sharing such significant milestones of the company with your audience in real-time, you are building their trust in the brand. Announcing such information in real-time also opens the room for feedback and further discussions, which is always a good marketing strategy. 

4. Improve the SEO – 

We saved the most underrated part for last. If you have a Linkedin account, but your customers are not able to find you, then what is the point? 

By creating content consistently, people will be more intrigued by your brand, leading to more followers. But is there any way how you can attract more people without putting in more content? 

There is. 

There are many details that can improve the SEO of your Linkedin page that YOU fill. You have the control to leverage the power of Linkedin searchability. Following are the areas where you can rank for the keywords you want- 

1. Tagline – Flaunt the problem you are solving with the brand. 

2. About us – Include as many relevant keywords as you can in this section. 

3. Posts – If you are using the right set of keywords and hashtags, people looking for those on Linkedin will find your posts and then come to your page. 

4. Linkedin URL- You can personalize your LinkedIn URL. If your Linkedin URL is the same as the URL of other social media platforms or your website, then it will be amazing. This will allow your previous clients to find you easily. 

Linkedin tools 

Now, you must be wondering that there is so much to do. You don’t have to worry. We got you covered. 

There are a few tools you can use to automate the whole process. Read on

1. Hootsuite-  

We bet you have heard this name before. Listed below are the things that this one magical platform can do for you. 

• Schedule your posts 
• Plan any ad campaigns 
• Manage many social media platforms
• Analyze your results

There are multiple plans priced at affordable rates based on your needs. You also can avail of a free 30-day free trial. 

2. Slack social – 

Much like the first tool, this is another tool that performs pretty much the same way. But, most functionalities of this platform can be accessed for free. Here is what all you can do with a free account- 

• Adding unlimited social profiles
• Sharing 10 posts per day 
• Scheduling the posts according to your convenience 
• Reporting emails 
• Managing different profiles with ease

Conclusion- 

LinkedIn offers more than 200 targeting characteristics through ads. Content creation on Linkedin increased 60% in 2020. These statistics reveal how important Linkedin is becoming in the professional space. 

Posting and staying consistent on Linkedin has many benefits. It can bring you returns as more sales and customers or as new talent for the company. 

The need for businesses to have a strong presence on LinkedIn is increasing. While there are many strategies to grow on Linkedin, the best advice is to keep adding value to your customers and being consistent with such actions. 

To get a growth-driven content strategy, contact us. You can get a free consultation with our expert team today.