11 LinkedIn business marketing tips to grow your Business
If you are in a business-to-business industry and you are not using LinkedIn marketing strategies, you are missing an opportunity.
LinkedIn is a social media platform for the professional world. Businesses, non-profit organizations, employees, and entrepreneurs are migrating to LinkedIn for marketing and networking. It is an excellent platform for building B2B connections and attracting top talent for your workforce.
The platform has 610 million users around the world, and two new users are added every second of every day. About 157 million of those users are based in the U.S. As many as 40% of LinkedIn users visit the site on a daily basis, and the average user spends about 17 minutes per month on the site. The average CEO on LinkedIn has 930 connections.click here
The site is a worldwide professional juggernaut, and it is growing by the day. Because it is such a popular site, businesses and individuals are wise to leverage their listing by using LinkedIn for marketing to build a brand identity and implement business marketing tips that can improve search results and connect with other vendors and clients online.
If you are not sure how to use LinkedIn for marketing, here are 11 tips to help you go beyond the basic profile and make LinkedIn networking opportunities work to grow your business.1. Build out your company page
Use your LinkedIn company profile to define your brand, products/services, and culture. Do this by posting status updates and publishing articles to your profile. Link to any published works like books and academic papers. Ian McClarty of PhoenixNAP Global IT Services says "I use LinkedIn as my primary business networking tool. I have found as I build out personal and company page, the connections keep on coming."
Highlight successful projects with photos, descriptions, and links to team members you worked with. This frames your company as a leader in the field and paints a clear picture of what you do and why people work with you.
Do not miss these features: 2. Identify your audience and your goals
This step of defining audience and goal priorities should be a part of any marketing efforts you take on.
Take some time to focus on what you want to accomplish with LinkedIn. Think about the following:
This is just a jumping off point, and you should add any specific goals you have identified. By clearly defining your audience and the goals you want to achieve, your marketing plan will come together.
This will help you be more efficient and efficient with all of your social media content. Make sure all of your copy, calls to action, and online connections are in line with these priorities. Having this clear-cut from the beginning will help you from getting distracted with features or opportunities that are not relevant to your bottom line. 3. Include SEO techniques to your profile
Do this after you have already completed tip #1 (you do not want to send people to an empty profile). Customize your LinkedIn address with your company name.
Use the links section to customize hyperlinks to your website, blog, and social media with descriptive, call-to-action style titles. For example, instead of "More Information" describe the page and what the visitor will learn there. Optimize for SEO, this goes for all of your social media profiles as well. Know more.
Use the same keyword techniques you apply to your website home page (you are already using keywords, right?) on your LinkedIn company profile. Then sit back and watch the search results come to you.4. Add interactive content to your posts
As with all social media, interactive content like videos and images are golden. LinkedIn reports that image-based posts get more than six times more engagements than text-only posts!
Share informative photos, SlideShare presentations, and YouTube videos on your profile to boost visitor engagement. Keep this rule in mind when adding future posts as well. The more video and image content you have the better it will perform online. 5. Add a LinkedIn social follow button to your website.
Do not leave your website content out of the mix! Add LinkedIn to the set of social profile follow buttons on your site. Add LinkedIn to your other accounts like Facebook, too.
When you write blog posts and other content that is relevant to your professional contacts and clientele, make sure to reference your LinkedIn page and add a hyperlink. One simpe way is by adding sharing buttons to your blog posts.6. Exchange recommendations.
Ask closely allied businesses and individuals to exchange recommendations on your LinkedIn profiles. You will both benefit from the content and be able to show that you have worked together on projects. This is great for companies and individuals whose professional alliances add value to customers.
For example, an architect and a contractor that work closely together. The loyal customers of each business will have an organic introduction to the other, and new customers who find your page will appreciate your relationships that can add value to (and even simplify) their customer experience. 7. Recommend another company or person independently.
Visit the pages of your vendors, allied companies, past and present employees, and professional colleagues and add your professional praise.
Doing this as a random act of professional kindness will often inspire a reciprocated comment (see benefits of reviews above), and increase the number of backlinks to your profile. You will also build goodwill with your past colleagues. 8. Join relevant LinkedIn communities
LinkedIn networking happens in real time in the platform's groups and communities. Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your location and area of expertise, then add value to the discussion with informative contributions.
If you do not find a group that suits your business, start one!
Most likely you are not the only business that could use the niche group. By leading the charge and contributing to existing groups, you can establish yourself as a recognized expert in the field.9. Connect with your other social media profiles.
Sync up your posts with another social media profile like Twitter to boost interaction and post-performance.
Connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account to accomplish this. This is an excellent example of multitasking LinkedIn marketing that can save you time by pushing fresh content to multiple profiles at the same time.10. Use LinkedIn apps
There are several applications within LinkedIn that you can use to fill out your presence and make the most of the platform. For example, Cardmunch is a free iPhone app that lets you take a picture of a business card and syncs the information with your LinkedIn contacts. This is exceptionally helpful when you are at an event like an industry conference, and you are meeting lots of new contacts.
The Reading List app by Amazon is a fantastic tool to share recommended books - a great way to make your profile more interactive. LunchMeet is an adventurous app that pairs you up with other LinkedIn users that are free for lunch. It is sort of like blind dating for business, but it is a pretty fantastic way to take a business relationship from online to the real world. Do not get overwhelmed with the apps, but try out one or two that match up with the audience and goals that you have set for your profile. 11. Watch the trends and sponsor your most successful content.
When you have a LinkedIn post that is getting higher-than-average engagement, view it as an opportunity to reach more people. You already know the content is hitting home with your audience. That means there is a good chance that you will get a better "bang for your buck" when you invest in broadcasting the post to a broader audience.
Revisit your audience and goal priorities and use LinkedIn's targeting options to sponsor the post and connect individually with the people you want to reach. You can also use your best content and call-to-action to make a LinkedIn ad campaign.
By actively managing your LinkedIn profile, you can join a worldwide community of professionals who are prospective employers, colleagues, allies, and employees.
Use this social networking tool to refine your professional goals, establish an expert reputation, connect with the right business allies and employees, and take your online presence to the next level.
