LinkedIn continues to grow as a robust relationship marketing social network with over 675 million users. As with all social media communities, employing and following a defined LinkedIn content strategy will garner the most benefits and growth, personally and professionally.
These LinkedIn best practices and strategies come from years of refining our approach to find what works to achieve LinkedIn community growth and engagement regardless of your industry. Incorporating just two to three of the following tactics can get you started towards increased engagement on the platform.
LinkedIn Best Practices – Corporate Pages
Essential to growing your business’ reach on the LinkedIn platform is developing and maintaining a corporate page. Of course, once you create the corporate page and update all available content areas included within, you need to develop a posting plan that includes a mixture of diverse content on a consistent basis.
Key Aspects of a LinkedIn Company Page
- Branded Cover Image – Utilizing your brand logo, coloration, and imagery create a cover image that also Includes what your business does, speaking to your target audience. (What image sizes should I use?)
- Current Overview – Include key points about your business that includes your company mission, who you serve keeping in mind who is your ideal client, and how your business can help. Don’t forget the call-to-action.
- Define Page Hashtags – Hashtags ensure that you are part of the larger conversation within your industry as it is taking place on LinkedIn. Currently, you can have up to three page hashtags, but you can change them at any time. Be thoughtful in defining yours.
- Develop and Follow a LinkedIn Page Strategy – Incorporate a diverse content plan, including video and moveable content, relevant articles, thumb stopping images, and don’t forget the more human elements of your brand. In every social network, LinkedIn is no exception, users crave interaction and understanding of the people behind a brand.
- Data: Review It and Understand It – Every month or so, step back and review your visitor demographics, most engaging content, and page growth. Make any changes or pivots as identified in the analytics, and repeat.
- Promote LinkedIn to Your Internal Team – Don’t miss the opportunity to add followership by encouraging and promoting your business’ LinkedIn activity to your employees. Employees are 14x more likely to share content from their employers than other types of content on LinkedIn. Make it easy for them to be active and promote your brand at the same time.
- Consider LinkedIn PPC Ads – LinkedIn ads are a powerful, highly targeted vehicle to get your information in front of key decision makers to produce a “warm” lead for your sales team.
LinkedIn Best Practices – Personal Profiles
Why be active on LinkedIn on your personal account? LinkedIn is the best social media community that helps you to build professional relationships and business opportunities. LinkedIn is an online platform that can supplement and support your in-person networking opportunities.
Key Aspects to Keep Up-to-Date on a LinkedIn Personal Profile
Maintain the Profile Basics
- Professional Photo – Seems simple enough, but your profile picture is important. LinkedIn personal profiles with an image have 21x more views and 36x more messages than those profiles with a generic silhouette. Keeping with the professional networking theme of LinkedIn, be sure your photo presents in the way you present yourself to clients. (What image sizes should I use?)
- Profile Heading and Title – LinkedIn makes these key areas searchable, so make them count. A best practice in the space is to list as many relevant titles as possible, following an easy-to-read layout and spacing.
EXAMPLES: Client Services Manager | Senior Sales Representative | Account Executive | Director of Sales | Accounts Payable Automation
- Keywords and Skills – Periodically, review the keywords and skills that you have listed on your profile and make sure that those are the most pertinent to your current job function.
- Experience – Using your resume content to share your experience isn’t about implying that you’re seeking new employment opportunities, it’s about building credibility and lending authority through your career experience.
Engage, Share, and Be Active
- Share content from your company page. It’s easy and builds your trust with your community as a resource in your industry.
- Engage with posts from your connections and other pages by liking, commenting or sharing.
- Spend 10-15 minutes a day building and interacting with your connections. The long-term benefits will come with consistent, thoughtful work in this network.
Connect, Connect, Connect
Post-meeting, connect. Post-luncheon, connect. Post-virtual event, connect. Whenever you meet or are introduced to a professional or personal connection, take the opportunity to expand and build your network.
LinkedIn, like other social networks, has the most potential to make an impact with consistent posts and shares. Building and adhering to a LinkedIn content strategy, large or small, will make a difference in the long-term.
The MJ2 Marketing team has in-depth experience developing sound, LinkedIn content strategies and LinkedIn ads strategies to work for your business and your sales team. Let’s chat and get you active in the most professional social network available 24/7.