Social media marketing continues to be trending upward for many businesses. Now, especially, brands and organizations are looking for creative ways to market their products and services online as many people around the world can’t physically go to a store to check out products.
LinkedIn is arguably very underrated as a social media platform. Professionals tend to use LinkedIn more because it appears to be more formal and business-oriented. Because of this, businesses are quick to create profiles on the platform. But are they using the right strategies? It’s easy to get lost in the world of social media and get overwhelmed, and that’s why we’ve created a guide on the advanced LinkedIn strategies that are vital for every small business.
Build Your Brand on Personal and Professional Levels
Having a professional brand is important if you want to succeed on social media in general, but especially on LinkedIn. With a complete professional profile, you can build strong relationships with potential clients. This is vital, as consumers are more likely to buy products from people they actually know.
LinkedIn is typically used by small business owners who tend to create a personal profile and a page for their companies. Having both types of profiles will showcase you in a professional light when someone stumbles across you or your brand.
With a glance at your profile, visitors should be able to learn more about you, what you and your business do, and why they should buy from you. For a personal profile, make sure your Skill Endorsements and Recommendations tab is filled up to boost your credibility. For professional company pages, make sure your profile is complete with relevant details and has daily posts to show audiences that you’re still up and running.
Create Showcase Pages
Showcase pages on LinkedIn allow business owners to promote individual brands if they have extensions of their main company or organization. It’s the perfect way to gain inbound LinkedIn traffic.
To create a showcase page, all you need to do is click ‘Edit’ from your company page, and you’ll see the option to create a showcase page! Showcase pages are custom-made to generate better leads.
Build Your Network
An important strategy that many people skip out on is the opportunity to build a relationship with other business owners and similar audiences (some of whom could be potential customers). Reach out to people you personally know first, and then expand your reach by asking them to introduce you to their connections. LinkedIn’s advanced search also lets you target people based on job title, location, and even past industries.
Optimize Your Page
Optimization is extremely beneficial for LinkedIn but is often overlooked! As you create content for your company or showcase page, make sure to optimize it in the same way you would optimize your website content to be in favor of search engines. Place keywords throughout your content (descriptions, posts, etc) to help your page pop up in the LinkedIn search results.
Publish Insightful and Relevant Content
While you’re supposed to make sure you’re posting regularly, you can’t just post anything you find on the Internet. Your posts need to have meaning and a hook that will keep your connections and followers interested.
Create helpful posts on the industry you belong to – this could range anywhere from tips on starting a business or how to successfully sell products online. When people find value in your posts, there’s a higher chance that they will share it with their own connections and this can boost your reach further.
LinkedIn Groups
Groups are the perfect way to make newer connections and have interesting conversations. You can join groups that relate to your industry to discuss topics with others around the same passions and interests! Once you mingle around groups, you can also make newer connections by connecting with those who join in the conversation with you. Take this as an opportunity to spread the word about you and your business in a more organic manner.
You can also set up your own LinkedIn groups! In order to keep your own LinkedIn group active and engaged, make sure you have established an admin or moderator to oversee the group, if you won’t be moderating it yourself. This will ensure someone responds to questions or comments promptly. It’s important that you post at least once a week. When you post on a LinkedIn group, members are immediately notified. Make sure to not spam group members with only posts about you or your brand. Start conversations and discussions about the industry and share insightful posts.
LinkedIn Pulse
Building a good reputation online will help you build credibility in the community and, in turn, help you reach a larger audience – and you can do this by creating and publishing content on social media. LinkedIn Pulse can help you do that. It takes LinkedIn, and social media in general, a step further with its online news aggregation feed. Members are able to share their own content directly to their target audiences.
LinkedIn tends to tailor content to every users’ individual interests so that they only see the content that they actually want to see. Make your posts as real as possible, offering professional insight and maybe even tips on succeeding in the industry or how to start a business!
