Being seen on Social Media is crucial for a successful business. But, is your company utilizing the right platform?
While Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like are all great for increasing customers, LinkedIn is the true game changer for B2B companies.
Ideal for product releases, recruitment, and lead generation - LinkedIn has become the third most used social platform for business owners. One in three professionals worldwide, has a LinkedIn account that they check everyday.
With that level of professional engagement, LinkedIn is a social network your business cannot afford to ignore!
But, how can you utilize LinkedIn to your companies fullest potential?
Let the following five tips be your guide.
1. Have a completed, keyword-rich company profile
This is one of the most important steps, and it should never be rushed.
Take your time.
Give a detailed description of your company, including your USP and any other relevant information - but do yourself a favour, keep it light, refreshing, and fun to read.
Be sure to fill your description with SEO rich keywords - this is extremely important! Not only for searching within LinkedIn, but, a google search will preview 156 characters of your description, so be sure it contains powerful, descriptive keywords! Once you have the written portion fine tuned, bring your page to life with photos! Your logo will appear when members search for your company, so ensure it is a clear, high resolution image. FYI companies with logo images get six time more traffic to their page! :) You can also use your profile to highlight individual brands/regions. This is a great idea for global companies who operate in multiple languages. LinkedIn allows you to create pages in more than 20 languages, once your page is created you can use targeting filters like geography and language to define the audience for your updates.
2. Engage your employees
While outsider perception is extremely important for building your brand on LinkedIn, maintaining a reputable internal employer brand is equally important. After all, your employees are (or should be!) your biggest advocates.
Encourage your employees to create a LinkedIn profile, then, create a company LinkedIn group! This is a great way to close any communication gaps between you and your employees.
Your company group will be a central hub for employees to communicate, share experiences, concerns, suggestions for change etc. - which will not only improve employee connectivity, but it will demonstrate your company’s commitment to their employees opinions and happiness. And when your employees are happy, they will be more willing to praise their workplace among their peers!
3. Create a conversation
Posting daily company updates is the best way to create a buzz, drive word of mouth and start a conversation with your followers.
But make sure it’s engaging!
Share things like juicy company news, industry articles, and thought provoking leadership pieces - anything that will make your followers stop scrolling, click on your article, and hit the share button or leave a comment!
Every post that you make will appear both on your Company Page and in the news feed of your followers.
So be bold, and be memorable!
4. Promote your page outside of the Company
If you share it, they will come!
Add your LinkedIn company page url everywhere: email signatures, newsletters, blogs, even other social media pages.
Have a particular post that’s doing well? Share that too! Don’t be afraid to send out follow invites too, to customers partners and other key audiences.
Another great way to promote is by adding a “Follow button” to your website… and turn “visitors” into followers.
5. Analyze and refine
Every great marketing plan, ends with analysis, reporting, and implementing change. It’s inevitable, and it’s how we are constantly growing and improving.
Your company page features helpful analytics that will not only show you stats on your follower community, but it will also give you insight to the activity on your page.
Have your posts been reaching your target audience?
Have you been reaching your engagement targets?
Your analytics page will answer all of your questions, and help you optimize to ensure you are reaching your monthly targets.
Implement these five guidelines to the best of your ability - and your business will flourish!
Need help? Don’t be afraid to ask for it. ;)