This article was written by Lisa D. Jenkins on Social Media Examiner (read the full article which includes some graphics)
For businesses, LinkedIn is an effective tool for collaboration, sharing best practices, and targeted marketing efforts. Independent organizations can participate in various groups to expand their network, and executives and business owners can position themselves as thought leaders in their industry.
Below is a thorough roadmap for what you need to know to get established on LinkedIn and make it work for your business. Here you’ll learn everything from setting up your business profile to optimizing your professional information to grooming a professional network to target potential prospects through special tools and features.
Setting Up Your LinkedIn Business Profile
- First, click on the “Work” dropdown at the top righthand corner of your homepage and select “Create a Company Page+” from the bottom of the menu.
- Upload a logo and banner image for your page.
- Post company updates from your page that your audience will find interesting and helpful.
- Tailor content to your audience’s needs and interests.
- Promote your page to attract followers.
- Create LinkedIn Showcase pages for specific products so you can customise your messages for different segments of your audience.
- Refreshing your LinkedIn Profile’s branding such as your background image and more.
- Auditing the rich media on your profile, such as YouTube video links, to make sure they are still relevant and active.
- Checking your website links to, once again, making sure they work.
- Accessing your LinkedIn connections to delete anyone who isn’t relevant or to reconnect with those who can help you build your brand.
- Viewing your LinkedIn activity to increase visibility and views.
- Checking your company page to ensure that the new images and updates are all correct.
The reason for all this checking and re-checking is because LinkedIn, like many social media platforms, often makes changes to its profiles that you need to be made aware of.
- Customize your contact information. Make sure all the entry points to your profile reflects important keywords.
- Use a video to introduce yourself and your work.
- Solicit endorsements and give recommendations.
- Share your education, certifications, and all awards.
Advertising On Your LinkedIn Business Profile
- Website Retargeting — Allows you to market to LinkedIn members who have already visited your website.
- Account Targeting — Helps you reach decision-makers within your target accounts.
- Contact Targeting — Enables you to upload or integrate your contact list to build a customized audience for your business.
Finally, video ads are another option offered via LinkedIn. Users can research a target audience by interviewing current and former clients, conducting an interview with a member of their executive leadership, and reviewing the LinkedIn profiles of existing clients or prospective clients.
Analyzing Metrics On Your LinkedIn Business Profile
- Creating an audit spreadsheet.Identify which techniques, such as shares, clicks, and “likes,” are getting you the best results and which ones are falling short.
- Tracking follower data.Use LinkedIn’s built-in analytics tool to assess your company page and not the total number of your followers. Use this number over time to see how it grows or doesn’t.
- Examining engagement data.Your LinkedIn analytics will show the number of impressions/reach, clicks, “likes,” comments, shares, and more, for a certain time period.
- Measuring referral traffic.You’ll want to use Google Analytics to analyze how much traffic LinkedIn is sending to your company website.
Generating Leads Through Your LinkedIn Business Profile
- Start with a LinkedIn Summary that conveys your value.Write a company summary that makes your prospects feel like you understand their problem and you have solutions. They need to be confident in your skills and expertise to help them get to where they need to go.
- Leverage the LinkedIn feed to deliver content that establishes your expertise.Focus on topics that you are an expert at. Demonstrate by what you are posting that you are the expert. Let your content illustrate to the outside world that you have the knowledge and depth and skill sets to own the space you operate in.
- Customize LinkedIn conversation starters for initial outreach.Once you start outreach, know what to say and if you’re reaching out for the first time, give the recipient some context.
- Monitor notifications for special occasions to celebrate.Monitor birthdays, work anniversaries, promotions and use them as opportunities to reach out and engage prospects.
- Develop InMail and Messaging scripts to move conversations toward your sales pipeline.Write scripts that help move your customers off of LinkedIn into your sales system or process.
- Nurture your relationships.This goes back to making sure your connections are relevant and up-to-date. If so, stay connected with them by checking in. This is the surest way to build awareness and trust. Use native prompts to start a conversation. The prompts in the “Ways to Keep in Touch” box on LinkedIn’s home page are good ways to keep engaging people in your network
- If you are a freelancer, join the LinkedIn ProFinder network.This is a freelancer marketplace where independent professionals can connect with LinkedIn members seeking experts for specific services such as writing, designing, editing, consulting, programming, and more.
To build an advanced prospect profile you need to identify a number of ideal attributes including demographics. That includes job title, industry, company size, and company revenue. You’ll also want to describe your prospect’s pain points and what actions they already might be taking to relieve them. By doing this you are mapping out an identity of the perfect prospect, which will help you in using LinkedIn tools to target them.
Broadcasting Video On Your LinkedIn Business Profile
- Support professional credibility on your profile.Including a video in the Summary, Experience, and Education sections of our profile gives people a sense of what you do and who you are. All you need to do is click the “Link to Media” button and then paste the video link in and click “add.”
- Add visual interest to LinkedIn Publisher posts.Again, video makes these posts much more dynamic and engaging for the audience you are trying to attract. Simply paste the link to the video in the post and you’re done.
- Make your updates stand out on the timeline.People are scrolling their timelines up and down and a video will make them stop and take notice. This is another tool you can use to develop relationships with targeted prospects.
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