How LinkedIn is Effective for Small Business

Your small business is hanging fire and you’ve no idea where to start? Well, LinkedIn could be valuable at this point.  

LinkedIn is indeed the most professional network among all the other employment websites. According to LinkedIn Statistics, more than 55 million companies are listed on LinkedIn. Thus, it’s not only useful for job seekers, but also entrepreneurs and small businesses. 

So, get in the driver’s seat as you’re about to get to know the fundamentals of marketing on LinkedIn. 

Create a LinkedIn company page for Your Small Business

 

It’s a long shot ahead of you but the first step is quite simple. Create a company page for your small business besides your personal profile. Therefore, users can follow your page to keep up with any activities or updates you share. 

In the long run, you’re working towards forming a network of loyal customers.  According to LinkedIn Business, 50% of the members tend to purchase from the companies on LinkedIn, especially the ones they engage with.  

Set Goals

Figure out a metric against which you can measure the progress of your small business. Set achievable goals for your company page so you can see its impacts on the whole business. 

It could be just image and presence. Or, more materialistic outcomes entailing a specific number of B2B sales.

Generally speaking, it’s recommended to depend on LinkedIn to increase brand awareness, generate sales leads and attend events.

Complete Both Your Pages

It’s an essential, yet highly neglected step that many entrepreneurs miss on the way of founding their small business.  A complete personal profile is your method of showing your professional image. Similarly, for the company page, you should put a lot of thought into coming up with a creative logo. It enhances the search results and the company’s legitimate image on your profile and the employees’ as well. 

“Get as many of your employees as possible to create and complete their profiles on LinkedIn. These should include appropriate photos, relevant job history that includes a description of how they help your business, and professional connections,” Tam Frager, marketing and communications consultant said.

Pick categories

You’re ought to choose categories for your company’s objectives. LinkedIn offers you the choice of obtaining up to 20 categories. The important part is that they need to accurately define your business.  

Customize your URL

 

Create a professional URL for your small business. It kills two birds with one stone as it boosts the company’s image through a more searchable and memorable URL.  

Use The Home Tab

Your home tab is the first thing your potential clients see on your page. You should exert some effort in envisioning the best way to introduce your service. 

Come up with a powerful summary that frames your personal branding statement while highlighting your uniqueness.

Create A Portfolio

You can have many potentials but still miss clients by choosing to remain silent rather than building an interesting profile. 

LinkedIn is the right platform to brag about your work. It already offers you up to 10 pages for showcasing. You can also do so by sharing pictures, links or even commenting on previous projects of yours.

Blog

Try to be as active as possible through sharing posts, writing articles and engaging in discussions. 

Providing helpful information and guidelines will contribute to your reputation in addition to increasing your reach and engagement.

Use Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words. Ensure that your posts are accompanied with multimedia elements as much as you can. 

The banner of your company page is the first picture any visitor sees, so it better be creative and eye-catchy. 

Know The Calendar

Plenty of people ignore all business-related stuff during the off days. Hence, don’t waste your energy on the wrong days as a thoughtful posting schedule oftentimes guarantees the return on investment. 

Post Wisely

Post only the information feeding your goals. Not every post on other social media platforms could be shared on LinkedIn as it differs in nature.

Although it seems common sense, many companies fall into the trap of sharing the same post on all platforms without even editing it. As a result, some audiences consider it spam and unfollow the page. 

Also, check DigiUTM’s article on 40 Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

Use Recommendations & Feedback

Encourage your clients to tag your page on their personal profiles. It’s vital for your team and you to keep an eye on the feedback you receive to improve your service. 

“The thing is the smaller the team the more agile you can be. What I’ve seen is we’ve got some very small teams that are producing amazing content.” A.J. Wilcox, Founder of B2Linked said.

Use keywords

In order to grow your page, you need to implement SEO keywords in your content and updates. Consequently, your page will rank higher in the search result adding up to your audience number.

Crosslink

To promote your services to different audience segments, include your company page in all of the followings: 

• Email signature
• Business card
• Company’s social media platforms 
• Personal social media accounts
• Personal website/ portfolio

Post Jobs

LinkedIn is in essence an employment website. Whenever you’ve openings, depend on the LinkedIn career tab to reach job seekers.

According to LinkedIn Statistics, 3 people get hired every minute on LinkedIn.

Advertise

LinkedIn Ads is a great tool to advertise job opportunities, services and products as they have a 40% conversion rate. 

“LinkedIn’s Sponsored Content… helps surface relevant content for quality prospects in our target B2B market, effectively merging our inbound strategy with cost-effective lead generation.”Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot said about LinkedIn Ads. 

Also, check DigiUTM’s article titled “Marketing on Social Media, What’s best for you?“, if you want to learn more about such a topic. 

Recognize Your Analytics 

Evaluate the analytics of your updates, followers, visitors and engagement on regular basis. They yield a lot of information about your company’s performance that’ll help you modify and improve your marketing strategy.

Reach Local Audience

The primary goal of any small business is to reach the local audience. Thankfully, LinkedIn provides you with several filters to ease the process for you. 

The Location-based Filter

It’s concerned with the geographical area. For instance, you can combine years of experience and location filter to reach candidates for your small business. 

Targeting Filters 

Use targeted ads for your updates to get followers who are particularly interested in your service. 

Likewise, you can use filters for skills, groups, job titles and fields of study. Note that you shouldn’t be too narrow with your search to get a reasonable size of the audience.

Stay Up-To-Date 

It’s hard to keep yourself updated on all the latest trends and industry-related news while managing a business. Nevertheless, LinkedIn newsfeed could be your window on the updates you need to know.  Just follow the right companies, organizations and figures that their posts will be the top priority. You can sort your feed according to the most relevant, popular or recent posts. Moreover, don’t miss following the most common hashtags that competitors and leaders in the field use. 

Try LinkedIn Live

Live videos is the most engaging tool on LinkedIn. It’s 24 times more engaging than pre-recorded videos, according to LinkedIn Business. 

The Live video creates instant communications with followers which deepens your connection. It could be in the form of a webinar, an interview or a virtual event.

You can maximize your audience by promoting your live video across other social media platforms. 

Your Personal Account

Alongside your company page, you could use your personal profile to support your small business by doing 3 basic tips.

Make Connections

Search the LinkedIn database to find connections in your industry with whoever you know might be interested in your service. There’re more than 740 million registered users worldwide that you can pick up from. You just need to be precise in your search.  

Once you grow a network, don’t attempt to sell to people. Instead, just be there and they’ll resort to you when needed.   

Join Groups

There’re dozens of groups you can join and interact with their members for a mutual benefit. They could be your gateway for establishing your credibility among professionals. 

Furthermore, you need to be noticeable which could be easily done by posting regularly and asking smart questions.  

Expand Your Email List

Your monthly newsletter is an intrinsic part of your small business plan and it shouldn’t be undermined. 

Bradford Hines, founder of YumDomains and HungryKids.org highlighted the importance of a rich email list and said, “I highly recommend everyone on LinkedIn write a crafted letter [to each connection], saying thank you for being connected on LinkedIn, and that you invite them to be part of your email marketing list.”

LinkedIn allows you to message 50 people at once. And with a direct link for your newsletter signup, you’ll grow a long list of emails in no time. Ah! You may also want to show them some appreciation and support in return.

Still not sure? the following infographic will give you an idea of how your internal newsletter should look like:

Wahoo! You just learned the ropes on how to market your small business on LinkedIn. Start right away with creating your company page and see your company grow day after day. If you’re still hesitant, it’s always a plus to learn more. 

Go the extra mile and check out LinkedIn Content Marketing Tactical Plan as it provides guidelines for marketing possibilities in addition to a printable tactical blueprint. 

 LinkedIn learning also offers a variety of courses in diverse topics including Growing Your Small Business on LinkedIn. It’s a 50-minute course for beginners. Yet, it includes all you need to know to build a small business. 

Harry up! Get your small business on its feet and remember that the more your aims are high, the more successful you will be.