Marketing on LinkedIn: Yep, It’s Possible

Marketing on LinkedIn: Yep, It’s Possible

When we say, “LinkedIn” what do you think of? If you’re like most people, the answer is “career networking.” Afterall, that’s the place where most of us go to promote our personal brands, connect with likeminded professionals, link to recruiters, and, well, just post our resumes. But there’s actually a whole lot more to LinkedIn than just that, including ways that you can use it to promote your business. Let’s take a look at the best way to promote your business on LinkedIn.

1. Grow a Community Around a Company Page

Just as you have a personal page for LinkedIn, your company can have a page, too. This is a concept you’re probably familiar with from other social sites like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. The difference is that on LinkedIn you’ll be catering to a more professional audience. This is great news if your company is B2B, as it’s a natural fit. If you’re B2C, that just means you’ll want to target any content you produce for your page to this more professional audience. This might mean, for example, creating content that focuses less on the lifestyle applications of your product and more on its applications in a professional setting.As you create your company page, make sure to do so with your customer in mind. What are they looking for out of you and your products? What will they most want to do know about you? Make sure to use plenty of industry keywords so the page is nice and findable.From there, it’s time to start building a community. Ask your employees to join your page as well as your current customers. You can do the latter by adding a LinkedIn button to your website and other social pages, as well as to your emails.Then it’s time to start producing content regularly for the site, just as you would on other social sites. Create expertise blog posts that address your customers’ most burning questions, using lots of visuals in your posts to keep them engaging. Make sure to respond politely and intelligently to any comments on your posts. Update your company status regularly so that you’re constantly on the top of your followers’ feeds. You might even consider doing a sponsored update, especially when you’re promoting something big and that you know has a specific demographic. You’ll pay per click as you will on other sites, but more powerfully, you’ll also be able to customize your targeting based on a potential follower’s company, job title and function, skills, the schools they attended, and the groups they’re a part of. Pair this with a strong call to action and a free resource, and you’re sure to get more people following your page and to gain more fans for you brand.

2. Grow Your Email Marketing List

If you’re looking to grow your email marketing game, LinkedIn is a great place to source potential contacts for your list. Of course, doing this means connecting strategically with other LinkedIn members in the first place. You’ll want to ensure you’re looking for connections that are in your industry, that could be potential customers, that are in your area (if your business is local), and that seem to be relatively engaged on LinkedIn. From there, send out an email to all of your contacts inviting them to join your list. You’ll be limited to messaging 50 members at a time, but with patience, you’ll get there. Our one caveat here is that you’ll want to use this technique sparingly, as no one likes a spammer. Once this initial push is done, try to invite every new contact to your list as you connect, rather than later on in a big blast.

3. Improve Your Own Profile

Your personal presence on LinkedIn matters just as much to growing your company’s presence as your company’s page does. For one, the more active you are on the site, the more site users will click on your personal profile. That’s an opportunity you want to take advantage of by talking clearly and powerfully about your company and your role in it, and by linking to your company page. Take the time to give endorsements as this will encourage others to endorse you, which will give your profile an excellent dose of social proofing. You’ll also want to reach out to colleagues for recommendations for the same reason.

4. Be Active

Similarly, it’s not just your company page that should be updated regularly. Putting out your own expertise blogs can be a great driver of traffic, especially if you submit them to LinkedIn Pulse, where your post has an actual shot at going viral. It’s also a good idea to research and join 4 to 5 supportive and engaging groups where your customers or other important industry professionals hangout. Keep your eye out for questions you can answer using your expertise, and post intelligent questions of your own that demonstrate how passionate you are about what you do. Again, your personal presence will impress fellow users and in turn will drive them to your company page or to your company website.

5. Develop Relationships

Participating in groups is also a key strategy for building tight relationships as you interact directly with customers and others in your field in the most natural manner. It is, in other words, the complete opposite of advertising, as you’ll all be on an equal playing field.Still, you’ll also want to strategically target other important site users. Reach out directly through messaging and by requesting connections to important industry influencers and media professionals so that you have a strong network of followers who are rooting for you and who can help you out when you have important news to share.

In Short

LinkedIn may not be as sexy as the other social media platforms, but its niche purpose can be leveraged to great effect. In fact, not having a LinkedIn presence means both you and your company are missing out on a wealth of powerful marketing opportunities. So get on there, optimize your profiles, and start connecting!