LinkedIn has around 347 million registered users; its use as a professional platform has grown massively. The functionalities available to you as a marketer have progressed a lot since the platform was first introduced. With that in mind, are you sure you are using LinkedIn to your full advantage?
Are you making good use of your logo? There are a few areas that you need to ensure look the part on your profile page. This, remember, represents your brand so the imagery and messaging you use needs to reflect your brand style guidelines. Remember that for every like, share and comment you post, your logo will be at the heart of each interaction. This little thumbnail image will let viewers know who you are. You need to make sure your logo is displayed correctly and is easily identifiable.
Are you using the showcase pages? As of last year, LinkedIn has removed the products and services section in the company profiles and has replaced it with Showcase Pages. These are smaller but more targeted pages that are associated with your Company Page. Make sure to use these, if applicable, as it allows you to promote specific products or to offer tailored content to your different buyer personas allowing people to follow what they are more interested in finding out about your company.
Are you posting content frequently? If not, you need to start posting relevant company status updates quite regularly. Keep the content interesting, this will give LinkedIn users more reasons to follow you. Don’t forget to use LinkedIn as a tool to leverage any blog articles you may write. Remember, you don’t need to be creating fresh content every time, share other content that you feel your audience will enjoy. Additionally, you can also re-use your own content, if you have blogs that have been sitting on your website for a while, freshen them up and repost them.
Are you using LinkedIn Pulse? This is the section on LinkedIn where you can read up on popular articles and content that is trending in your network. It is also a great way to find out what your followers are interested in reading, then you can post content to their taste. And great news - You no longer have to be a LinkedIn Influencer to publish articles to Pulse. Publishing is now available to all users.
Are you generating leads via LinkedIn? So it is all well and good having a great profile with some interesting articles to read, but as all marketers know – we have to prove ROI. To get the most out of LinkedIn for lead generation you need to get your followers to your website! Promote and share links to your blog and website’s landing pages where ever you feel is appropriate. We suggest adding links in your status updates, LinkedIn Groups relevant to you, on your Showcase Pages, and in calls-to-action placed in any posts you publish in Pulse.
Are you using LinkedIn Ads? When starting off with LinkedIn, it is certainly not expected that you use LinkedIn ads, and of course, it is not suitable for every business. Some marketers would dismiss LinkedIn ads as they may think the audience is much smaller in comparison to Google AdWords. However, LinkedIn ads will allow you to be more targeted in your advert visibility. You can set your target audience by title, Industry, unique skills or interests – something you can’t do with Google AdWords.
LinkedIn is a great way to not only find out key contacts within businesses you would like to work with but it also allows you to show off your skills as industry leader. Using some of the tips above to optimise your company page will help make sure you are getting the most out of it, which in turn will result in more traffic to your website, more leads and ultimately more sales!
Is increasing your LinkedIn followers a key objective in your marketing strategy? Make sure to download our Marketing Strategy Scorecard and edit it to include your LinkedIn targets.
