LinkedIn is the top social media channel for B2B marketers. With its 400 million users, it drives 64% of all visits from social media channels for B2B companies. You can harness those numbers to make LinkedIn work for you.
Or, it can do absolutely nothing for your business.
“I don’t get a lot of value from LinkedIn,” said a friend of mine who runs his own business.
To get value out of LinkedIn, you must put in value and effort. But how?
PERSONAL ACCOUNT
I know you’re here to get more traffic to the blog at either your company or the company that employs you. Why do we need to get our personal profiles involved?
People don’t want to buy things from businesses; they want to buy things from people.
To ensure your business marketing is successful on LinkedIn, you must connect with other people. After all, LinkedIn is a network for people who work at businesses, not just companies.
Update Your Details
Make sure that your profile details are up to date.
Make sure that your title is correct, that the description of your job includes numbers and specific details about your work.
You should have a recent, up-to-date headshot that looks appealing and engaging, not intimidating.
Engage With Others
To get the most out of LinkedIn and build your network, you need to be active on the platform. First, connect with everyone you know. This includes:
- Current clients
- People you went to college with
- Coworkers
- Friends
- Peers in the field
- Anyone you’ve met personally
Now, you must become active on LinkedIn. This is more effort than just scrolling through the feed; reading but not interacting. You need to get engaged with the platform and the content of others.
There are a couple of places you can do this:
- Feed — Post an update a few times a week. Being seen on people’s feed will make them more likely to click your stuff because it makes you a public figure. Make sure what you post is a blend of both your stuff and the stuff of others. Then interact with others’ updates, liking, commenting, and sharing.
- Groups — Join groups that match your target audience. Once you get added, start by participating in the discussions on the forum. Don’t just barge in, posting your new blog post without getting to know the group a little first. It’s like coming late to a party, then trying to take over the entire conversation.
Joining the conversation and posting updates of your own will make your profile more personal and less pushy.
Send Out Your Best Work (Only) Through PM
When you hit the share button on a social icon on your website, you can send the page you’re sharing as a private message (PM).
You should only do this occasionally though. Sending anything through private message is intrusive and highly personal.
Think about all the cold messages you’ve gotten through LinkedIn. 90% of them went ignored, right?
Only creep into someone’s LI inbox when you have something hugely valuable. Not just a blog post, but something that took a little more time to produce.
Think in-house infographics, videos, etc. Make your intrusion worth it, and it won’t feel like an intrusion.
INFLUENCERS
Influencers on LinkedIn are great for keeping up with what’s hot in the land of LinkedIn. And you can get more than just inspiration from them.
Follow Them
Start following people that you are interested in and ones that are relevant to your industry. Keep yourself updated on the biggest news in your areas of interest.
Engage with Them
Comment on their posts, like their posts, and start conversations on their posts. You’ll get your name out there and increase the chance that you’ll connect with them or their community.
Mention Them
If you’re inspired by an influencer’s post, make a point to call them out in your post and thank them for inspiration.
You never know if the influencer in question will check out your article, and then from there, a new connection is born.
COMPANY PAGE
If you own a company, you must have a Company Page.
Company pages are where fans and prospective employees can find and follow your business. They can drive traffic and host a multitude of links back to your content.
Post a Blend of Content
Post a combination of your content and the content of others on your company page. The blend of your work and the work of other trusted brands will make your brand look good.
Create CTAs to Follow It
Create opportunities for people to follow your company pages everywhere. Maybe send out an email to subscribers, once a quarter, who haven’t already followed your account. Send out tweets with a similar frequency, encouraging your followers there to connect with you on LinkedIn.
Put a follow button on your blog page, so that people who read a blog post can follow you on LinkedIn. This is a great way to connect readers on one channel to readers on another. This makes it easier for you to track them and more likely for them to convert in the future.
Create Showcase Pages
Showcase pages are another way to add dimension to your company page. It almost takes your company page and turns it into more of a fully functioning website.
Another use for showcase pages is to segment a diverse audience. If more than one type of person uses your offering, considering creating relevant showcase pages for each of your buyer personas. Users can even follow a specific showcase page, as opposed to your entire company page.
You get ten showcase pages for free, which is a pretty sweet deal. Why isn’t everyone creating showcase pages? Use them to drive customers to specific locations, keeping leads targeted but also unified under your LinkedIn footprint.
It will take a lot of time and a decent amount of effort to complete all these steps. But when you do, you’ll find that the time investment into your LinkedIn presence drives traffic to your website and leads to conversions.
