Tom Welbourne
Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
Why You Should Be Using LinkedIn For Your Marketing
Why You Should Be Using LinkedIn For Your Marketing
With 562 million users using the social network built for business professionals, LinkedIn has become a popular tool for businesses in the b2b industry.
Also, did you know that LinkedIn is the number one social network for lead generation?
If you’re a Small Business Owner, then LinkedIn is a tool you have to be looking to use whether you’re selling b2b or b2c because it’s free and you get INSTANT access to a network of people.
In this article, we will discuss the optimisation, opportunities and how to market on LinkedIn…
Friends of Friends of Friends...of Friends
No that wasn’t a triple typo, LinkedIn is perfect for making connections with your existing connections and then making connections with their connections…
The list is never-ending because the more people you are connected with the more connections you can make on the back of that, it’s exactly like the snowball-effect!
You want to be making connections with people in your industry, or anyone who you think is going to be relevant to your product/service as a Small Business Owner.
This will lead to connection suggestions from the LinkedIn algorithm to connect with other people who may be relevant to your niche.
You will end up connecting with people you may have never heard of who offer goldmines for you and your business – just keep digging!
There are opportunities on LinkedIn to connect with like-minded groups where people will be discussing relevant topics and you may even get insider industry access.
How You Can Build A Reputation On LinkedIn
There are so many opportunities for you to build a reputation for yourself or for your brand on LinkedIn.
Here are a few ways:
Commenting on people’s posts
Posting valuable content yourself
Sharing opinions and starting conversations on your posts
Once you’ve found the people you want to connect with, it’s time to actually engage with those people on a REGULAR basis.
Why put “REGULAR” in caps?
It’s no good posting a comment every now and then and hope you’re going to become a star overnight because it probably won’t happen.
People need to know you and your brand and you do this through EXPOSURE.
Engage with people so much on LinkedIn that people start to see your name everywhere. As long as you adding some value to the conversation then people will warm to you.
Why don’t you start a conversation yourself?
Put forward an idea you have yourself and generate some buzz around the topic. Get people talking on your post and sharing their opinions.
Optimise Your Profile
Just because LinkedIn is a business social network, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to put in much effort into your company profile.
Most importantly, it also doesn’t mean that because it’s a “professional” network that you have to be super formal.
How many times do you see companies post the same business jargon such as, “we are an innovative organisation that has the capabilities, comprehensive portfolio and expertise to solve customers’ challenges and to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global market.”
The above is not something that the majority of people are going to want to read. It doesn’t answer the most important question that people ask themselves which is:
“What Is In It For Me?”
Talk to people how you would in face-to-face scenarios, it will make people interested in your brand, who you are and add personality to what you do!
People like to hear stories and the story of your brand can get those people who were on the fence about your business off the fence and turn them into paying customers – add your story into your bio.
Write articles, post engaging videos and anything that you think your audience would want to know about your brand. People will likely share the video, article or post if they think it is share-worthy so put out some good content.
Improving Your Ranking In Search Engines
Google and other search engines rank LinkedIn pages very highly in their search engine result pages.
Optimise your posts, bio and any content you put out for SEO because it may push up all your other social networking pages and your website.
People may link a post or an article you put out because you provided valuable information that they wanted to share which ends up on their website, profile or social media accounts.
Summary
We want to point out that some brands will have no business (pardon the pun) on LinkedIn and to put it bluntly, it would be a waste of time for them.
However, don’t be put off by the idea that LinkedIn is only for b2b businesses because that’s not true. You can have success on the platform as a b2c business also so don’t put it to one side, weigh up the pros and cons.
Even if you don’t use it for your small business, you can still go on to use it for personal networking. We highly recommend this because the founders and relevant people you will want to network with will more than likely be on LinkedIn.
As a small business owner, you probably don’t have to time manage your social media accounts, let alone adding another one to your bow. This is where a Digital Marketing Agency comes in handy to take the load off for you.
Schedule a FREE, no-obligation call with us today by clicking HERE!
