LinkedIn: Marketing Yourself & Your Business

LinkedIn remains one of the most powerful social media channels for B2B marketers and its importance continues to grow.  Organic reach on LinkedIn remains unthrottled and the majority of LinkedIn users are the decision makers in their respective businesses.

LinkedIn offers two account options:  1) Personal Profile and 2) Company Page.

PERSONAL PROFILE:

Your Personal Profile is the foundation of your LinkedIn presence and it serves as the storefront for your personal brand throughout your entire professional career.   Please use a professional profile photo and complete your profile using well written text and multimedia elements when available. (Spellcheck!)

You will use your Personal Profile Page to share helpful information with others. This in turn validates you as an authority in your particular industry.  Don’t use your Personal Profile for selling!  That’s reserved for your Company Page but your Personal Profile Page will be used in tandem to gain wider exposure for your Company Page updates.  (This will be explained in more detail when we discuss Company Pages.)

Your Personal Profile Page Is For Helping Others

You have several ways of interacting on your Personal Profile Page.  You can share an update or you can like, share, or comment on one of your connection’s updates.  The later shows you to be a caring business partner.  In addition, your name and profile photo are now attached to that update which is visible to both your and your connection’s network.  When posting an update, remember to include an image which will help draw attention to your update.

Always Use An Image When Posting An Update

Stay focused on growing your LinkedIn network by continually sending invitations to connect and responding promptly to any requests you receive.  (Sending a personal note to the connection during this process is a nice touch.)

Welcome To LinkedIn’s New Long-Form Posts

The newest way to share on LinkedIn is via the Long-Form Post.  Think of it as a mini-blog (but no selling!)  This is where you will share personal/professional insight that would be helpful to someone dealing with issues that you’ve faced. You can also share industry knowledge that would expedite the reader’s learning curve.  Persons reading your Long-Form Post can elect to “follow you” which alerts them to all your future posts.  These followers can be LinkedIn users with whom you are not currently connected.  (Your Long-Form Post becomes part of your Personal Profile and your Long-Form Post is searchable both on and off of LinkedIn.)

COMPANY PAGE:

In order to create a Company page, you first must have a completed Personal Profile.  You will also need a “domain based” email address for the Company Page you’re creating.  (Example: john@yourcompany.com)  Make sure too that your company is listed under the ‘Experience’ section on your Personal Profile.

Your Company Page is where you will share information about your company’s current promotions or upcoming special events and promote what makes you different or better than your competition. Your Company Page should be professionally branded with the consistent look and feel of your website and other social media channels.

Your Company Page Is For Promoting Your Business

You’ll want to encourage LinkedIn users to ‘follow’ your company page.  This is done by promoting your page via newsletters, printed materials, other social media channels or good old-fashioned email. 

To gain wider exposure for your Company Page posts, you can ‘like’ the update when it shows up on your Personal Profile Page’s newsfeed. This is a non-selling/humble way of getting this update in front of your 1^st level connections and it allows them the opportunity to share it with their connections.

Use Your Personal Profile To Expand Your Company Page’s Reach

You don’t want to ‘like’ every Company Update you post on your Personal Profile Page as this can get a little annoying and predictable.  Be selective on the updates you choose to bring into your personal LinkedIn pipeline.

JOIN A GROUP:

A great way to expose your brand beyond your current LinkedIn connections is to Join A Group.  There are groups for most every industry and interest so finding one to join should be easy.  Once a member, you gain immediate contact access to group members and a portal to share your knowledge with professionals outside your current network.

BEST TIMES TO POST:

Best times to post on LinkedIn:  Tuesdays & Thursdays:  7:00 AM to 9:00 AM (and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM)

*** Worst times to post on LinkedIn:  Monday-Friday:  9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (and 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM)

When It Comes To Posting, Too Much Is Not Better

If you are currently not very active on LinkedIn but want to be, start slow.  On your Personal Profile Page, begin with maybe posting one update per week and one like/share/comment per day.  After a month or so, you can ramp up to a more normal schedule.  Of course, what’s normal is unique to everyone but my suggestion is posting an update no more than once a day to your Personal Profile Page and like/share/comment on someone else’s update no more than two or three times a day.  As for your Company Page, start with maybe one post per week and after 30 days expand to two or three posts per week.

SUMMARY:

The secret to building a solid LinkedIn reputation for you and your company is to be helpful, humble and consistent (and not become an irritant because you’re posting too often or sales pitching too much).  Your LinkedIn connections can choose to block your updates, or even worse, remove you as a connection.  You don’t want either!

Please ‘follow’ our Make It Loud company page https://www.linkedin.com/company/make-it-loud-web-design and I’ll see you on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/greggburkhalter  Happy New Year!