The rise of social media has drastically changed the digital marketing landscape for businesses everywhere. By giving businesses the power to engage with thousands - even millions - of people across the world, social media provides a vast new landscape of marketing opportunity.
Many business owners, however, have struggled to find the value of social media. Especially if you have a small B2B business, sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram may seem like a waste of time. But you may have forgotten about one very important social platform: LinkedIn.
For many, LinkedIn marketing is an untapped resource. The social network, launched in 2003, focuses on business and helps you share content and connect with other professionals. Whether you’re trying to connect with colleagues, recruit employees, or find new prospective customers, here are 5 reasons why you should be spending more time on LinkedIn.
1. Boost your personal brand
Have you ever Googled your own name? (Admit it, you have). And likely your colleagues, customers, and competitors have too.
If you have a LinkedIn profile, typically it will land within those first four coveted positions on Google. So having a complete personal profile on LinkedIn is a simple way to increase your professional presence online.
With over 300 million active members, LinkedIn boasts a high authority. But more than that, the growing social network has its own search features and rankings - one more arena for you to conquer.
Using searches focused on skill set, experience, and industry, LinkedIn users are actively researching for new contacts, prospects, employees, and partners. Investing the time in optimizing your profile and posting actively will help you build your professional brand and reach a new and larger audience.
2. build credibility and authority
Go beyond likes and retweets. On LinkedIn, you can receive professional endorsements and display references from colleagues. By listing experience, skills, and accomplishments, you can craft a full virtual résumé. Many companies now check applicants’ social media pages to gauge their abilities - even in lieu of a traditional résumé!
LinkedIn isn’t just for job seekers, however. It’s a powerful publishing platform that can help you build authority.
LinkedIn lets you post updates, upload images and videos, tag other people and companies, link to other websites, even publish blog posts. By publishing content through LinkedIn, you can engage with current and prospective customers, and share your expertise.
3. Maintain relationships with your customers, colleagues, and the competition
Social networks are about conversation, and that requires regular, consistent activity. But the advantage of LinkedIn marketing is that it gives you a way to stay connected to your professional network in a scalable way.
Imagine trying to physically grab coffee with 10 connections, call a dozen others and attend an in-person networking event every single day. Sounds like a chore. With LinkedIn, you stay in touch with hundreds of people by spending just a few minutes a day on the platform.
Accepting and sending connection invitations, participating in discussions and groups, posting updates, and commenting on other posts all contribute to building your online relationships.
Take a few minutes scanning your news feed and responding to others every day. Try joining groups related to your industry or profession. These focused communities give you the opportunity to learn from others and establish new relationships with like-minded people. Consider connecting with your competitors too. Talk trends. Even ask them for advice. You never know what you may discover.
The more time you spend on LinkedIn getting to know others in your industry, the more opportunities you have to expand your network and meet new potential clients.
4. Free word-of-mouth advertising and increased website traffic
While LinkedIn is great for networking and expanding your personal brand, it’s also a powerful social media marketing tool for your business. Using LinkedIn marketing for your business allows you to get your company’s name out there and even drive traffic back to your website.
Start by creating a LinkedIn company page and making sure it’s complete. List your contact info, your products and services, and a company overview. Then, use both your company page and your own profile to start sharing content.
More connections means more people to see and share your content, which helps you reach new prospects. So building your network starts with engaging your current audience. Keep your LinkedIn profile current and post fresh content that your audience finds relevant and interesting.
Linking to your company website, blogs, or other branded content can help you drive more people back to your website. It’s a simple way to draw in new prospects who may not have found your business otherwise. In fact, building links and driving traffic are two of LinkedIn’s most underappreciated strengths.
LinkedIn marketing can result in more website referral traffic for you. Focusing on your profile and the content you publish to the platform is a simple way to draw in new prospects. Link building and driving traffic are two of the most underappreciated strengths LinkedIn boasts, making it a mean lead-generation tool.
5. Generate new leads and sell, sell, sell
Because LinkedIn marketing is great at driving traffic, it’s also a strong tool for lead generation. In fact, a Hubspot study found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook or Twitter.
On LinkedIn, you can promote a new product and link back to your website so people can click to learn more. Or you can post an interesting piece of content that prospects can download from your website.
LinkedIn also provides many options within the platform to connect with prospects. You can search for LinkedIn members based on company, industry, job title and more. With LinkedIn Premium, you can even send direct messages to new prospects to introduce yourself and your business.
Finally, LinkedIn is a wealth of information about your customers that you might not otherwise know. By examining your connections’ profiles, groups they’re part of, what they post, and the questions they ask, you can identify what it might take to turn that prospect into a customer.
LinkedIn provides a multipurpose platform that allows users to post interesting content prospects can link back to or download. More than this, companies can learn information about their customers they wouldn’t otherwise be privy to. By examining connections, the questions customers ask, and the groups they’re a part of, you identify what it might take to turn that prospect into a customer. Answering their questions demonstrates valuable expertise that drives traffic and generates new leads.
GET STARTED with LINKEDIN marketing
With so many reasons to leverage your online profile for your professional life or your business, LinkedIn is one social network where you can afford to spend a little extra time.
Need help getting started? Our digital marketing agency in Lancaster, PA offers LinkedIn marketing packages to help you promote your personal profile or your company. Contact us today to learn more!
