Small business owners have many things going on in their day-to-day operations, and it can be difficult to know where to focus efforts with social media. While other platforms provide businesses with great tools, LinkedIn is among those with the most to offer business owners for many reasons. It's a well-known professional network, and focuses on professional life, as compared to others.
To help you get the most out of LinkedIn for your business, follow these tips.
1. Start with a Personal Profile
Set up a personal profile if you haven't already. Make it as professional as possible with a quality headshot, a thoughtful headline, and a summary about your professional accomplishments. Include your work history and your company name (which will link to a company page). Remember the personal profile is about you and not just about your business, so bring your own personality to it in a professional manner.
2. Build and Use a Company Page
The company page is where you can display everything about your business. Include your logo and a good cover image. LinkedIn suggests adding pictures of the town you work in, your products, services, or workspace. Share your business's story in the About Us section. Link to your company's website, so people can get a better idea of what your business is about and find more ways to engage from there. Be sure your website looks professionally designed.
3. Make Connections
Making connections is ultimately the reason LinkedIn exists. You can make all kinds of professional connections that lead to great business relationships, whether they be partnerships, employer/employee relationships or even potential customers. Connect with people in your industry and market and accept invitations to connect with others.
"Building out your network can give you an impressive reach of second-degree connections – the people who know your mutual connection, but may not know you (yet)," LinkedIn notes.*
4. Join Groups
The Groups feature is great for business owners because executives can connect around a shared interest or industry. This is excellent for networking opportunities and for establishing yourself as a valid voice in the community. When you are a member of a group, you can also get regular digests of activity from the group to keep you updated and informed. This can also serve as a reminder to engage when you have something to add to the conversation.
5. Stay Active
As with any social media platform, it pays to stay active. This will help you build a larger following and give your connections more reasons to engage with you. Post often, but have something to say when you do. Also, like and comment on other people's posts. Converse with others, but again, keep it professional.
6. Recruitment and Hiring
LinkedIn is also a great tool for recruiting, posting jobs, and hiring. You might be able to find quality candidates in your own network.
"Once you’ve set up a company page, you’ll be able to post your job listings for a fee," explains Belle Wong at The Hartford.** "LinkedIn uses pay-per-click pricing for job postings, so you’ll only pay for actual user clicks to your job listing. Be sure to spread the reach of your job posts by sharing them in Company Page updates, and through your personal profile posts as well. And if your employees are on LinkedIn, ask them to share the post with their connections too."
7. Share Engaging Content
LinkedIn is an excellent place to post not only short updates for your followers, but to share other relevant content you find from the web. These posts can generate interesting conversations and even drive traffic to your company's website if the post comes from your blog, for example.
Business owners need to take a look at using LinkedIn to their benefit. These seven tips can help you build a strong presence not only on the platform, but within your industry. They can also help you recruit top talent for your business to remain competitive and stronger for the future.
* http://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/BusinessOwnersGuidetoLinkedIn.pdf
** https://sba.thehartford.com/business-management/linkedin-tips
