With over 65 million users, LinkedIn is a social network geared toward career professionals. From making connections and establishing partnerships to generating leads and boosting your brand awareness, you can do many things with LinkedIn that make it an invaluable addition to your digital marketing strategy.
If you have a home business that caters to other businesses (B2B) or have a business in which networking for partners or clients is important, you should have a profile on LinkedIn. If you’re not there or haven’t maximized all the features of LinkedIn, this guide can help. Like other forms of internet marketing, marketing a home business on LinkedIn is an inexpensive way to gain exposure.
What is LinkedIn marketing?
LinkedIn isn’t just for professionals and job seekers. Sure, millions of professionals use LinkedIn every day to grow their networks and their careers, but you can use LinkedIn to grow your business too. This social media tool exposes you and your business to millions of connections that you can use to build relationships with individuals and other companies to boost your brand.
How to use LinkedIn for Marketing
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Create a LinkedIn Page
Before your company can start LinkedIn marketing, it needs a LinkedIn page. Here’s a quick guide on how to set one up. If you haven’t already created a LinkedIn profile, you’ll need to do so first.
How to create a LinkedIn Page:
- Visit the LinkedIn pages section of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions website. Click Create your Page.
- Choose the best category for your business.
- Fill in company details. A page preview displays how it looks as you add content. Choose a good URL for your brand. If you can, make it the same as your handle (username) on other social sites.
- Upload your company logo and add your tagline. This step is optional, but don’t skip it. Companies with logos get more visits than those without.
- After you fill out all your information, check the verification box to confirm that you are allowed to operate the account on behalf of your business
- Click create page.
- Complete your Page
Take your LinkedIn Page from basic to next level by adding more detail. This provides visitors with information about your business and improves your ranking in Google and LinkedIn search results.
To add information clicks the pencil icon on your profile under your company name.
Company description: Tell people about your vision, mission, values, and offer a description of your products and services.
Location: Add your store or office locations. You can add multiple addresses by selecting +Add Location.
Hashtags: Up to three hashtags can be added to make your profile more searchable. Pick hashtags that are commonly used in your industry and that best suit your business.
Cover photo: Add polish to your profile with a background photo. Choose an image that showcases your business. Avoid shots that are too busy or cluttered. Recommended size is 1584 (width) x 396 (height) pixels.
Manage language: If you have a global brand or multilingual audience, you can add your name, tagline, and description in over 20 different languages.
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Share your page
Let people know your LinkedIn Page is up and running. If you have employees, send a company-wide email with the news. Let them know how they can follow the page and add it as a place of work.
Share pride for the people that make your business great. Connect visitors to your company’s thought leaders. And give potential customers and hires a glimpse into your culture.
Promote your page with your customers as well. Make use of all your digital touch points—newsletter, social channels, and website, and ask for follows. When you do, tell people what’s in it for them, from job opportunities to LinkedIn Live sessions.
On LinkedIn, page admins can also invite their connections to follow. Simply click the Admin Tools dropdown in the upper right corner and select Invite Connections.
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Add LinkedIn buttons
Add social media icons to the header or footer of your website or newsletter so it’s easy for people to find your LinkedIn Page. Find the most up-to-date version of LinkedIn’s logo and brand guidelines here. Or save the following images.
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Create a LinkedIn marketing strategy
With your Company Page ready to go, it’s time to think about your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
What goals can your company accomplish on LinkedIn? Will you use LinkedIn for business hiring, social selling, connecting with customers, or all of the above? Should your LinkedIn marketing budget include ads?
Get to know LinkedIn demographics. It’s a good starting point for learning who uses the platform, and who you can reach. Take an audit of your LinkedIn competitors. See how they use the platform, what works, and how you can set your page apart.
LinkedIn marketing tips to grow your business
Learn how to market on LinkedIn like a pro with these tips.
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Share posts with rich media
Posts with photos and videos typically perform better across social media. The same holds true for LinkedIn.
According to LinkedIn, posts with images receive 98% more comments than those without. You can also upload PDFs, PowerPoint, or SlideShare presentations to support your posts.
An advantage of LinkedIn native video is that it auto-plays when someone scrolls by it. As a result, it does a better job at catching someone’s attention. Plus, videos hosted on the platform are prioritized by the LinkedIn algorithm.
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Optimize posts for reach and impact
When it comes to posting from your company page, there are a few LinkedIn best practices for businesses to consider.
LinkedIn’s algorithm ranks posts based on the following signals: personal connections, interest relevance, and engagement probability. In other words, it aims to show people content that will interest and engage them, from accounts they connect with. Your posts should aim to do the same.
You can notify employees if you think they’d be interested in the post. As company advocates, they can jumpstart engagement on the post and boost its visibility.
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Post Regularly
It’s important to post regularly to build an audience on LinkedIn. Brands that post once a month gain followers six times faster than those that don’t. Brands that post once a day gain even more traction.
No matter how often you post, aim for the most impact by posting at the best time. Hootsuite research finds the best times to post on LinkedIn are 7:45 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. EST. The best day for B2B brands is Wednesday. For B2C brands, Mondays and Wednesday are best. All audiences are different, so use LinkedIn or Hootsuite analytics to verify that these times work for you.
If one of your posts seems to be doing particularly well, you can pay to promote it to even more people as sponsored content.
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LinkedIn Live
Live broadcasts see 24 times the engagement that a pre-taped video does.
Brands have found plenty of reasons to go live, from fireside chats to interviews and webinars. Some have even hosted virtual events. The format allows for instant connection with audience members, especially if you respond to questions and comments.
Before hosting a LinkedIn live, make sure to promote. And not just on LinkedIn. Spread the word across all your audience touch point.
5. Launch a Showcase Page
Create a LinkedIn Showcase Page to show off a special initiative or engage a target community. These pages give LinkedIn members another way to follow you, even if they don’t follow your page.
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Learn from LinkedIn Analytics
Check LinkedIn Analytics regularly to improve your LinkedIn marketing strategy. Track post metrics to see what people engaged with most, what drove the most action, and what flopped. Adjust your content calendar accordingly.
From the analytics dashboard you can also monitor how people find your page and what sections they engage with. Compare how many page views your tabs get, and if you manage a Showcase Page, see how much traction it’s getting. Visitor demographics give you a sense of who’s interested in your company.
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Target the right audience
One of the more noteworthy LinkedIn marketing tools is its organic targeting option for posts. Page admin can target posts based on follower profile data, including organization size, industry, job, and seniority, geography, and language preference. Your Pages will need a minimum of 300 followers to target.
Adding LinkedIn to Your Marketing Strategy
Adding LinkedIn to your marketing strategy can help you expand your network, find customers, and cultivate a professional reputation for your home business. Consider adding a LinkedIn badge to your website or blog, so visitors can easily find your profile and connect with you.