Have you considered using LinkedIn to promote your business and improve your conversions? When marketers think of marketing on social media platforms, LinkedIn is usually one of the last ones they think of, even though it boasts 645 million members worldwide. When used correctly, it’s a convenient tool that grows your business, creates buzz for your brand, and markets it to new people within your target audience.
Business professionals rely on LinkedIn to network and further their brand’s reach, but those goals can only be achieved if the platform is used correctly. Not having an active or optimized LinkedIn account looks terrible to your audience and possible network connections. It shows you’re inactive and might not know your way around this medium of technology.
Why use LinkedIn to promote your brand?
LinkedIn is a social platform that lets businesses, brands, and professionals of all types engage with one another. It helps job seekers find opportunities and businesses reach their target market.
Building authentic relationships online is easier when you have word of mouth marketing doing the work for you. Because LinkedIn focuses on professionals and creating networking connections, it provides the opportunity to spread the word about your brand without coming off pushy or overbearing. It feels natural and draws your audience in.
Being active on LinkedIn creates awareness for your brand and builds recognition. It positions you as a leader in your industry and showcases your skills as an entrepreneur. The more credibility to your name, the easier it is to convince your audience that you’re the brand they need.
When it comes to promoting your personal brand on LinkedIn, remember to
- Optimize your profile to increase awareness and reach
- Customize your feed so you’re interacting with the right people
- Take advantage of LinkedIn Publisher
- Create a company page
Optimize your profile
Your profile is the main ingredient in explaining who you are, what you do, and what opportunities you may be looking for. It’s important to optimize every section of your profile so that your target audience and other professionals can easily find you and see what you’re about. A completed user profile shows that you’re active on the platform and will encourage more users to connect with you.
It’s essential to optimize the main elements of your LinkedIn profile, paying close attention to the following:
- Profile photo: Choose a photo that’s professional, up close, and clear so anyone would know it was you.
- Headline: This explains your current role or position and how it’s unique to you. This section gives you leeway to be witty and humorous.
- Header photo: Providing a clean background that doesn’t have too many distracting elements is your best bet.
- URL: You need to customize your LinkedIn URL so that it’s easy to link back to and for others to find you.
- Summary: Explain what it is you do and the value you bring to your audience. What problems of theirs do you actively solve? Use keywords to boost your rankings in LinkedIn and Google searches.
- Work experience: Fill out as many useful past experiences as you can that speak to your current role and got you where you are today.
Customize your feed
If you scroll through your LinkedIn feed and don’t see much content that your brand can relate to, you aren’t engaging with the right people or brands. If you want to promote your brand, you must engage and interact with likeminded businesses and professionals so your chances of getting noticed and responded to are significantly higher.
This is an opportunity to make meaningful, secure connections with people in your industry. Building your LinkedIn network shows others the professional company you keep while simultaneously building your brand. LinkedIn automatically suggests contacts to you, so don’t be afraid to send connection requests to those you know you could benefit from.
Send out connection requests to colleagues old and new, classmates and industry leaders. This is the first step to networking towards a healthier, more optimized feed so that you only get the most relevant, useful content shown to you.
Post content to LinkedIn Publisher
If content marketing isn’t part of your LinkedIn promotion strategy, it should be. It’s a way to generate leads and drive traffic to your website organically. In a recent study, 72% of marketers said that content marketing increases their brand’s engagement. It’s a cost-effective inbound marketing strategy that’s proven time and time again that it can grow your business and promote your brand.
LinkedIn Publisher allows you to publish blog posts so users can engage with and share them. Imagine the impact of getting several shares across multiple accounts. Your content may end up in front of a leader in your industry, which would open the door to discuss opportunities.
Publishing content consistently on LinkedIn shows thought leadership and can build a growing community of loyal followers who admire you as a personal brand. When users see that your content offers them value and insight, it’ll intrigue them enough to check you out. This is a subtle way of promoting your brand that isn’t pushy and doesn’t aggravate your audience.
Create a company page
LinkedIn lets businesses create a company page with details about their products and services. This keeps potential customers and new visitors informed about what your business does and how it solves your audience’s problems.
Creating a company page with LinkedIn also drives organic traffic to your website. When users search for terms and keywords relevant to your brand, they’ll see a link leading back to your company page. This gives them further clarity by providing more information and nurtures them through the conversion funnel.
Since employees have 10 times more social reach than the companies they work for, it’s important to share your employees' content on your company page. This gives viewers a sense of your company culture, shows them the type of team members you have and builds a genuine connection back to your brand.
Use the company page to create job postings to find candidates who are the right fit for your brand. There might be job seekers who haven’t come across your brand yet, but when they see your job posting, they’ll have the option to read more about your company too.
Wrapping up
With so many social platforms out there, sometimes LinkedIn gets overlooked. Remember that it can be a goldmine for making important professional connections, growing your business, and promoting your brand.
Optimizing your profile is the first step to using LinkedIn to its full potential. Auditing your connections, and forming new, valuable ones in their place is how you'll receive and circulate content that's relevant to you and your brand. Using all of the company page's features will drive traffic to your website and help you find your next hires. Finally, it's essential to take advantage of LinkedIn Publisher so your content is front and center for your audience, and can get the engagement it deserves.