For most businesses, especially B2B businesses, LinkedIn pages offer more value than other social media. The audience is professional and focused on work. There is less content that is personal, irrelevant, and/or divisive. A LinkedIn page that’s done well can increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and help you get noticed on search engines. Here’s how to get the most out of your business page:
- Take a strategic approach. As with any marketing endeavor, you should think through what you’re trying to accomplish and how you can accomplish it. Evaluate your audience and goals so you can target the right people with the right type of content. Come up with a plan that will allow you to grow and attract customers. Make sure you’re considering your own bandwidth and ability to follow the plan consistently.
- Fill out your profile completely. Make sure all your information is complete and up to date. Have a Call to Action that drives traffic to a landing page or your website’s home page. Be thorough in your “About” section. Make sure your description uses relevant keywords and speaks directly to whoever makes decisions about whether to use your product or services.
- Grow your audience (and hopefully your customers). Start byinviting your network to follow your page. Grow by posting quality content as frequently as you can manage. LinkedIn states that companies that post once a week grow their pages seven times faster than those that post once a month, and those that post once a day grow eight times as fast as those that post once a week (source). Don’t forget to promote your page elsewhere as well. Add follow buttons or links to your page on your website, in your social media bios, on your business cards, and in your email signature.
- Post good content. By now it should go without say: make sure you’re posting things that are meaningful to your audience. Demonstrate your expertise and solve problems for your customers. Experiment with a variety of formats (newsletters, blog posts, pictures, videos, animations, and webinars, etc.) and subjects (company updates, job postings, industry news, tutorials, etc.). Share content from your partners, clients, and staff. Tag the people you mention. Repost industry news with your own thoughts. Keep your tone and branding consistent with your website and other social media channels, but tweak your content so that it appeals to the specific audience you’re trying to reach.
- Engage with your audience. Respond to comments,. Start a conversation by creating polls and posting the results. Comment (as your page) on relevant content. Pay attention to your audience; LinkedIn is a great place for market research. When your audience engages with content (yours or not), they give you insight into their behaviors, thoughts, and opinions. This insight can inform your content creation and even your sales strategy.
- Monitor your competition. LinkedIn is a great place to study your customers, but it’s also a great place to study your competition. Follow other pages in your industry to see what is expected of you, what you’re doing better than the competition, and what you need to improve. Let the competition’s content inspire you and help you find ways to stand out.
- Pay attention to your analytics and adjust your strategy accordingly. At least once a quarter, do a deep dive on your analytics and see what is and isn’t working. You don’t want to change up your strategy too often; consistency is important when building an audience’s trust. But you also shouldn’t be afraid to abandon a strategy that isn’t showing any promise.
Substance and Style 