Marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn prides itself on being the largest professional network online, and with 740 million membersmarketing on LinkedIn across 200 countries, they’d be fair in making that assertion. As well as being a member of LinkedIn, active marketing on LinkedIn for businesses makes complete sense for everyone, from SMEs to multinational corporations.  Whilst more people are starting to use it for B2C, it’s traditionally known as a network for B2B businesses, and if you’ve got a particular kind of business or person in mind to target, it’s a really good place to start.

Start marketing on LinkedIn by actually joining LinkedIn

You’ve got to be in it to win it, so if you’re not even on LinkedIn yet you’re obviously going to need to join.  It’s similar to joining any other social network but with LinkedIn, at every point, you should be asking yourself ‘would I be happy for a client or employee to see this?’  This might mean that the photos or information that you put on your personal pages such as Facebook are less welcome or relevant.

When putting your previous work history in, use that opportunity to look at previous contacts that you’ve worked with, and potentially start to make connections as you go to save time later.  If you’re starting from zero it’s important to make as many new (but positive) connections as you can to look more established.

Make even more connections

Once you’re set up and you’ve hopefully had connections made through previous employment accepted, it’s time to try and make more connections.  Going to the tab marked ‘My Network’ will give you suggestions of people in similar roles that you might know, or people in your area that you might know.Connections

But you can also go to the search bar and start searching for the people you might know by company, role, or even by name.  Make sure you reach out to current clients and previous clients that you parted on good terms with.

Making connections is an ongoing process too.  After a meeting, invite them to connect on LinkedIn.  If you’ve been to an event, look up the speakers and people you met and invite them to connect.  If you’ve visited an office, connect on LinkedIn not only with the person you had a meeting with but also relevant people from that company as well.

Quantity might initially be important to establish credibility of sorts, but it’s also important to bear quality in mind.  Your connections should be people that would be interested in your business, but also your advocates that might interact with your posts and promote you and/or your business moving forward.

Marketing on LinkedIn with a company page

As well as having a personal profile you can also have a company page.  This is a great way to promote your brand and company as a whole instead of just yourself as the owner and/or key contact.linkedin snip

Whether you’re creating it yourself or working with a marketing agency, make sure that your LinkedIn company page ‘goes’ with your website design and other social networks.  Ideally have your logo prominently as the profile picture to make sure people instantly know it’s you if they’re looking for you.  Use the cover photo for a more personal and even seasonal image and make sure all of the information is consistent with other profiles.

Having a company page doesn’t make your personal profile any less important.  You can invite people to follow your company page, but you can only invite those in your network.  That means your network is vital to the initial success of your page.

Content is king

Start sharing relevant content to your target market.  Not all of this content has to lead to your website, but it helps if you have your own content marketing or copy to share such as a blog or case studies.

You can also share the news of your clients, potential clients or useful contacts.  Industry news in general is good to share as well to show you’re staying up to date in your field.  Always make sure to introduce the content with some thought though, making it clear that you’ve read and appreciated the content as opposed to blindly clicking ‘share’.

You’re able to tag both individuals and companies, so make sure that you do that in all content where you’re giving them a shout-out – especially if you’re congratulating them on a new project or award win.

Involve your employeesNotify employees

Make your employees aware that there’s now a company page and for them to be sure to mark themselves as employees.  If they’re not on LinkedIn, encourage them to join and use it as a useful tool for news and information as well as sales.

When you publish a new post, there’s the functionality to share the post with employees, so make sure that you do this to encourage them to interact with and share the post as well.

Have you got the time to get marketing on LinkedIn right?

Like everything, it’s not worth doing if you’re going to do a half-baked job.  The steps above are only the start as there are also groups, content published tools on LinkedIn itself, LinkedIn ads and PR outreach.  If you’re looking to make the most of marketing on LinkedIn and your other social media marketing, get in touch.  We’re one of the leading digital marketing agencies in Surrey and London that work specifically with SME owners who are big on enthusiasm but short on time.