How to Make LinkedIn Work for Your Business

Some business owners think LinkedIn is a job board for job seekers. Others who recognise its value want to know how to make LinkedIn work for their business. So in this article, we shall look at how to make LinkedIn work for your business.

According to this article, businesses marketing on LinkedIn generate 277% more leads on average than those engaged in Facebook marketing alone. Surveyed B2B marketers also say that LinkedIn handles 80% of their social media leads.

This article notes that social selling leaders have 45% more sales opportunities per quarter. Maximising your LinkedIn connections can save you time and connect you with the right prospects for your business. That’s why B2B marketers rely on LinkedIn for content more than any other channel, with 94% distributing content on the network.

Some questions business owners ask me about LinkedIn include:

• How can I use LinkedIn to promote my business?
• How do I get my business noticed on LinkedIn?
• How can I promote my business on LinkedIn for free?
• How can you make a LinkedIn account for a business?

In this article, I try to answer these questions and teach you how to make LinkedIn work for your business.

But first, let’s talk about the importance of LinkedIn marketing and how to set up your company page. If you own a B2B company, LinkedIn should definitely be a part of your business’s social media marketing mix. LinkedIn is the biggest social media network for professionals. It is a great place for networking and growing your business. Using LinkedIn for your company allows you to build credibility, create a meaningful network, and gain access insider expertise from established experts in your industry. It’s an amazing B2B marketing tool.

For business owners, having a LinkedIn page is as important as having a company website.

Have a Comprehensive Personal Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is the most significant ways to sell yourself on the network.

Have a comprehensive profile and keeping it updated with relevant text and images. The more extensive your profile is, the better. Highlight your unique selling points, your specialities, work history, education and contact details. Use keywords related to your specialisation. Repeat these keywords often without being spammy. Highlight whatever makes you unique. Make your profile look professional and easy to share by customising your LinkedIn public profile URL. Instead of a URL with random numbers at the end, it will have your name. Customise your profile URL using your name to make it more user-friendly. Also, ensure you include a headshot photo of yourself. This will make it look nice and clean.

Connect your profile on LinkedIn to your business website, LinkedIn company page, and other social networks.

A comprehensive profile on LinkedIn helps when potential customers and partners search for you.

Keep your profile fresh. Update it regularly with relevant blog posts and images to ensure that people in your network get a clearer vision of your place in your business or your career at the moment. Keep your profile updated as it shows you’re active on the network, and that’s to your advantage.

To get the most out of LinkedIn, make your LinkedIn profile comprehensive and interesting. Your profile will be your online address where people can find you. It’s the place to show off your biggest achievements and your personality. Your profile is your chance to put your best foot forward. A complete LinkedIn profile can serve as a nice social proof to help you connect with opportunity.

LinkedIn also has its own publishing platform. So if you have the time and resources, you can create and publish content only on this platform. This will help to boost your marketing efforts.

If you have the means, you could also go for one of the paid memberships tiers on the platform. Depending on your membership type, you could get access to additional tools and features such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Score & Trending Content.

Create a LinkedIn Company Page

Before your business can start LinkedIn marketing, it needs a LinkedIn Company Page. Click here and follow the steps. Complete all the steps. You can take your LinkedIn Page from basic to the next level by adding more detail.

Once your LinkedIn Page is up and running, please share it with your network and add it to all your marketing collaterals. To enable people and search engines to discover your company page, add LinkedIn buttons and social media icons to your website’s header or footer or newsletter. This makes it easy for people to find your LinkedIn Page and acts as social proof to help attract potential clients.

Now that your page is up and running, you need to create a LinkedIn marketing strategy. To help you create your LinkedIn marketing strategy, you need to ponder over and provide answers to such questions: what goals can my company accomplish on LinkedIn? Will I use LinkedIn for business hiring, social selling, connecting with customers, or all of the above? Should my LinkedIn marketing budget include ads? and so forth.

Please ensure you keep your company profile up to date by posting relevant content and status updates. Depending on your company size, you can choose one or more persons to be admins of your company page. They should post relevant content, topics, images and any job opportunities on the page. Through your employee’s LinkedIn network, they can also discover potential clients and invite them to like your company page.

Grow Your LinkedIn Network

The next step is to grow your LinkedIn network by connecting with your friends, former schoolmates, past workmates, etc., to grow your network. I would suggest you connect with people you know or have interacted with within your career. Or persons with whom you have a shared connection. Be careful with how you send messages to people on the platform. So you don’t find yourself in trouble for breaking any of LinkedIn’s rules. You could be called a spammer and lose your invitation privileges.

In the past, I used to avoid sending or accepting invitations from people I didn’t know personally. And this slowed the growth of my network on the platform. But my stance on that has changed in recent times.

LinkedIn is all about making business connections, from individuals you know personally to individuals you wish you knew. Invite co-workers from past and present companies. Invite classmates from present and past educational institution. You can find customers, employees and partners alike on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the best social media platform that can help you grow your professional network.

The platform has nice search features which you can use to network with your existing clients and prospective clients too.

A couple of weeks after you have connected with the person, you can consider sending them an invitation to follow your company page on LinkedIn.

If you are an admin of several company pages, please be strategic in sending out invitations so that you don’t overwhelm the same persons with invitations to join different company pages.

Avoid hard sells on LinkedIn. Instead of interrupting other users with your marketing messages, strive to be discovered by posting relevant content. Please get familiar with inbound marketing techniques and apply them to this network. It will help you stay on customers’ radar.

Join Industry Related Groups

LinkedIn Groups provide a place for those in the same industry or with similar interests to share experiences, ask for help, and build valuable connections. You can find groups to join by searching at the top of your homepage or viewing the groups you’ve already joined.

LinkedIn is useful in helping you stay abreast of the newest industry trends and practices. The best way to achieve this is by joining and taking part in industry-related groups.

When joining groups, please don’t start promoting your own business. Instead, take part in relevant discussions and answer questions posed by others. By so doing, you will position yourself as an experienced professional and not just a spammer.

Learn to help others in the group and not only to seek for others to help you. The more you help others, the more others will help, recommend, and endorse you. So it’s a win-win situation for you. Regular participation in your groups should be part of your marketing strategy on LinkedIn.

Follow Companies and Influencers

The next step is to follow as many companies, brands and influencers on LinkedIn as you admire. There’s no limit to the number of companies and individuals you can follow. The more companies and influencers you follow on LinkedIn, the better. Please follow my Mauco Enterprises’ LinkedIn Page too. I’d really appreciate it.

LinkedIn is an excellent social media platform to network with business leaders and influential people to help you in your career and business. So make meaningful connections and follow CEOs, CMOS, CFOs, LinkedIn influencers and so forth.

Give Recommendations and Endorsements

According to this article, endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn are actually not the same things. An endorsement is a specific skill that a colleague or friend can back you on. A recommendation is a brief note from a professional who recommends you for a job or project based on their experience with you. So, a recommendation is a written statement of endorsement received from a connection. The more recommendations and endorsements you have, the better because it acts as a sort of social proof of your competence. It will also boost your reputation on the platform.

Give recommendations and endorsements. This recommendation is a great way to show support for people whose work and skills you value. Do this, expecting nothing in return. Recommend and endorse people whose work and skills you can vouch for.

Conclusion

These are some tips that can help you make LinkedIn work for your business.

Which of these tips have you tried, and what was the result? Share your experience in the comment below.

Do you have any LinkedIn tips that I’ve left out? Tweet me @ademolaabimbola or @mauconline. Catch you later.

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