If you still think of LinkedIn as a business networking tool, it might be time to rethink how you’re using one of the world’s most robust online tools. Over the past five years, LinkedIn has emerged as a top platform for not only finding business opportunities, but also as a way to showcase thought leadership and promote products and services. In fact, LinkedIn can be used effectively to drive traffic to your business website and increase your sales. Here’s how:
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The first step is to create a company page. You need to showcase what your company offers, spend time on your services description and be sure to use keyword rich sentences to be effective. The Coca-Cola Company’s page is a good example of this.
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Showcase your company culture to boost your branding and attract like-minded individuals. When you do post career positions, LinkedIn allows you to narrow down candidates easily by sorting through their online resumes.
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Promote your LinkedIn profile on your company’s other social accounts – such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to increase visibility and connect with your various networks.
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Use analytics to alter and edit your LinkedIn strategy. By using LinkedIn’s analytics tool you can see which efforts are working and which efforts are not and alter your content accordingly.
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Utilize LinkedIn’s advertising tool. It comes with two features: Sponsored Updates and Text Ads. Sponsored updates help to increase the visibility of your updates and to reach a specific audience besides those people that are following you. On the other hand, Text Ads help to generate leads and drive new traffic to your website.
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Encourage customers and clients to leave recommendations about your products and services. Word-of-mouth is essential to any business and positive reviews will only attract more people to purchase your products or services.
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Attract followers with an eye-catching cover photo. Social Media Examiner does a nice job of explaining the guidelines for setting up your cover photo and company page.
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Encourage employees to follow your company’s LinkedIn page and to promote it.
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Follow similar companies to gage the types of updates that are performing well.
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Appoint a team member to manage your Company page, and create a content calendar to keep track of outgoing content. By creating a calendar in advance, you can ensure that there’s content regularly being distributed.
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Post frequently to keep your brand’s presence thriving on LinkedIn. However, be sure not to bombard followers with updates. 5-7 updates a week is ideal.
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Ensure your LinkedIn page is managed regularly just like you would with any other social media account. If you can’t allocate the time for LinkedIn, consider outsourcing the job.
Need more tips? Get inspired by LinkedIn’s Best Practices. Happy networking!
