With the social media era in full swing, you might find yourself wondering, is LinkedIn a good fit for my business?
The short answer is yes. LinkedIn has the potential to be a strong pillar in your social media strategy. Why? Because LinkedIn is the largest professional social networking site. Crowd favorites such as Snapchat and Instagram are useful platforms, but much more casual. Many online users are utilizing Facebook for both personal and professional purposes. But LinkedIn is your one-stop platform for attracting top talent to your business as well as establishing yourself as an industry leader. In fact, 40% of LinkedIn’s 500 million users are logging into the platform every single day.
Here are 3 important points to keep in mind as you begin your LinkedIn adventure.
Every Business Needs a LinkedIn Page
Did you know that LinkedIn accounts for up to 50% of all social traffic on B2B websites and blogs? This is in part because your LinkedIn page can easily double as a landing page for your company. Your bio is a great place to briefly pitch your organization and its objective. You could even use that space to invite people to follow the link to your website and take action.
Now you might be saying to yourself “My business doesn’t take part in any B2B marketing, so why bother creating a LinkedIn page?” GOOD QUESTION. While LinkedIn is useful for B2B marketing, it’s also a great tool for increasing brand awareness. As I mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is a great platform for establishing yourself as a professional within your industry. Even the smallest of businesses can use this platform to build their network and increase their online visibility. If you choose to take the brand awareness route for LinkedIn, keep in mind that your page should be more focused on selling your brand than your product.
Take Nike’s LinkedIn page for example. You won’t see any promotions for shoes or sales on athletic wear as you scroll through their feed. What you will see are employee highlights, Nike’s involvement in community events, and intriguing articles related to sports and innovation. I repeat: you will not see product promotions on this page. Rather than using this space to promote individual products, they promote the company as a whole.
Establish Yourself as an Industry Expert
Whether your primary focus on LinkedIn is brand awareness, lead generation, or networking, you’ll want to interact with the platform in a way that lets others know you are an expert in your field. One of the best ways to do this is by sharing content that is specific to your industry.
Posting 1-2 times a week could give your business a sizeable advantage over others.
LinkedIn recently altered its algorithm to redistribute about 8 percent of post feedback from top LinkedIn creators to the remaining LinkedIn users. This means that posts that previously received little to no engagement are now more visible to your LinkedIn connections. However, even with this algorithm change in full effect, less than one percent of LinkedIn users post weekly content. This means you don’t have as much competition for real estate in the feed of your followers as you do on other social platforms. So remember, if you want to be seen, you should share.
In addition to sharing you’ll want to interact with your followers and others on the platform. Responding to an article that someone else has posted can be a good segway for sending them a direct message and become further acquainted.
Be Your Own Brand Ambassador
We all want people to trust our business. But between data breaches and social platforms that are oversaturated with brand messages, consumers are distrusting brands more by the day.
This means, one of the best ways to promote your business page is through your personal page. Your personal page has a trustworthy advantage over your business page. While it’s important to use your personal page for connecting with other users, don’t underestimate the importance of sharing content from your business page in your personal feed.
You may also want to consider encouraging your employees to speak out on behalf of the brand. Allowing employees to be brand ambassadors for your company may seem risky, but with the proper training, it’s effective. Your audience trusts word of mouth recommendations more than ever and who knows more about a company than it’s employees? Employee behavior on LinkedIn is especially important when you take into account the fact that your company is attached to their name whenever they leave a comment or post.
So does your company need a LinkedIn page? The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes. Proper use of Linkedin will fortify brand awareness and open opportunities for growth.
If you’re not sure where to start with your LinkedIn strategy or what to post, reach out to the Lava Surf team to find out how we can help!