LinkedIn – Because It’s Good For You!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must have some idea of the impact of social media on business. Long gone are the days of social media purely as a means of online interaction. Today the medium is a behemoth in terms of brand communication channels i.e. LinkedIn.
That said, harnessing the power of social media isn’t easy. It takes expertise, innovation, hard work, and some risk-taking to develop a solid social media strategy. Seasoned social media marketers will typically select channels proven to be most beneficial to their strategy via research.
At TA we like to run the numbers, but we prefer to create an organic brand. If we were to go with what’s most successful, we’d miss all the emerging markets and trends. Why? Because we would never listen to the voice of our clients.
Instead, we’ve found that number crunching and creative liberty are the seeds to brand development. This has allowed us to explore the benefits of diverse social media platforms for our client base, all the while furthering our research into the business-brand model.
Today, let’s take a look at the often neglected, but highly recommend networking channel, LinkedIn.
Image via Forbes.com
Brand Identification
Have a solid image/theme of your company’s brand before creating a profile on LinkedIn.
The networking channel has regularly updated their features since its launch, many of which can be used to enhance your profile. For instance, you can edit your profile copy, include external links, explore cover photo options, create a professional blog/vlog plugin, etc.
Tip for Profile Copy: While writing the description, elaborate succinctly your company’s products, services, work ethos, history, etc., You will need to identify your tone– create a brand voice chart— in making a true first impression with potential customers and clients.
You also need to make it a point to ask all your staff to update their LinkedIn profiles and connect their place of business to their profiles.
Post With Consistency
One of the most noticeable features that LinkedIn has added are, Posts.
Using this feature, you can:
- Keep followers updated with company news
- Curate content
- Post white papers, case studies, how-to articles, press releases, listicles, etc.
- Provide a calendar of company events
Your ultimate goal should be on share quality information with your LinkedIn network. Quality information that can be revisited has a higher potential for engagement (read, liked, commented, shared) by your connections.
With increased post engagement, chances are you will further extend your target audience reach.
Additionally, as a part of our LinkedIn strategy we utilize ‘targeted updates’ aimed at our existing followers. You can target the followers on the basis of – company size, industry, geographic location, etc.
Of course, there are also ‘sponsored updates’, which LinkedIn displays to your entire target audience irrespective of whether they’re a part of your network.
Search Engine Optimization
When creating your company’s profile, make sure to optimize your content with keywords that target your business, products, and/or services.
For proper SEO tactics you can always rely on expert’s opinion (On Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile).
Doing keyword analysis will be useful for driving traffic to your website– gaining satisfactory web and mobile SEO rankings.
Network Engagement
LinkedIn ‘Groups’ are melting pots of job seekers, employers, customers, clients, and people from all walks of life looking to expand their virtual network.
You can go about creating your own group in one of two ways,
- Make it ‘Public,’ and open access to all LinkedIn account holders
- Make it ‘Private,’ and permit access to an exclusive base LinkedIn account holders
Either option allows you to access and utilize group moderator features.
Forming a LinkedIn group will help you reach out to your prospective customers and clients by, in a sense, corralling them to a central location; your ‘Group’ however, must be purposeful and regularly maintained to encourage community engagement and foster growth.
LinkedIn Groups can also serve as a platform for you to announce company events, news, and employment opportunities. Better still, they may serve as the forum for a connection (business, academic, hobbyist) to occur within your own network between other individuals.
You can also share links to your website/blogs/articles and other posts on LinkedIn and outside of it with group members. This again, helps drive traffic to your website.
LinkedIn groups also serve as great lead generation platforms– you can send automated emails to new members. This means you can create custom messages to welcome newcomers to the group and strike up a true relationship.
All in all, a group helps you foster a thriving community– you can interact with like-minded individuals, and exchange ideas and opinions, all of which encourage business growth and brand development.
Go ‘Premium’
How can one talk about LinkedIn without mentioning the recruitment opportunities that it provides? Both employees and employers are on the lookout for career opportunities and talented professionals to fill these roles.
Although you can use the services for free, the paid membership features are a worthwhile investment in opening up business avenues.
LinkedIn also offers a choice of Premium Services in package deals, that in turn offer you the greatest potential ROI of your search.
Here is a few of LinkedIn’s paid account options,
- Send messages directly
- Access the Profile Organizer
- Keep a track of selected profiles; You get a dedicated work space to organize selected profiles into folders. Additionally, you can also add client details to your contact list.
- Advanced Search Features
- Free accounts on LinkedIn limit your searches to 100 results; Premium account settings extend this profile viewing maxim.
- View Missed Connections
- Track LinkedIn members who have visited your profile
Image via Blog.Brisk.Io
If you are still not convinced about going premium on LinkedIn, you can always settle for a free trial of the premium version.
These are just a few of the ways through which your business can leverage LinkedIn. If you too have tested the waters on this professional social media channel, share some tips from your kitty with us. We’re all ears!
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