LinkedIn has always been the sensible sibling of social media channels like Facebook or Twitter. Many people still don't make the most of this channel and can't see the benefit, despite it having over 400 million users (DMR, 2016).
For local business owners, there are two ways to maximise this channel:
If you haven't set up a company page yet, here's our tips on doing that.
By using LinkedIn as an individual and a company, you can show a personal and professional side to your business that's harder to do on other social media channels. Plus, there are plenty of opportunities to do all this for free – here are our top six.
Maximise the summaries
On your personal profile and your company page there's space for a short summary which you can use to explain to people what you do and what the benefits are of working with you.
The key point here is that LinkedIn uses these summaries to help work out which companies and profiles to show when people search for related words and phrases on the channel (in the same way Google works).
To maximise your personal and company page summary, make sure to include relevant phrases and words which relate to your business so that people can easily find you. Think like your customer – what are they looking for? What do they want to know about?
Personalise the LinkedIn address for your own profile
You can change the URL of your personal profile on LinkedIn to make it easier to remember and share in other marketing. Unfortunately, you can't do this for a company page, but if you want you can include the name of your business or brand in your personal profile URL - for example /jennysmithcatering.
To personalise your LinkedIn address:
Regularly update your status
As with other social media channels, keeping your personal profile and company page regularly updated on LinkedIn shows your audience that you're up to date and interested in sharing good ideas.
LinkedIn has several different options for keeping your profile and company page updated. You can share status updates, as you would on other social media channels, including images and videos. However, LinkedIn also has a great option to write longer blog posts within the channel; these are then shown on your personal profile, and you can share them on your company page.
These longer blog posts give you an opportunity to talk directly to your customer, as well as potentially thousands of other people who will find your post through searching on LinkedIn. Think carefully about what you're going to write about and who your customer is – LinkedIn is a good place to show professional expertise in a helpful, engaging way.
Get your team involved
LinkedIn Company Pages have several features which mean your team can be involved with your business, helping to put a face to the company and showing your expertise in another way.
First of all, make sure all your employees have a profile photo on LinkedIn; this is one of the most common problems and (just as if you didn't have a Twitter or Instagram profile) it looks unprofessional.
Next, get your employees to connect with your company page by updating their profiles with career experience. When they do this, they'll be able to search for and select your company page as an employer, and this will automatically add them to your page. Don't forget – you can do this too!
Encourage your employees to 'follow' your company page, so they'll see your updates. Then, when they do, ask them to share these updates with their connections. Through doing this, your business will gain more exposure and you'll show a more personal, individual side.
Contribute to groups
As an individual, contributing to Groups on LinkedIn is a powerful way to build trust in your brand. The only way you can contribute to Groups is as a person, meaning that it's much more conversational and less corporate than if companies were able to do it.
Groups on LinkedIn are exactly what they sound like – groups of like-minded people sharing interesting ideas and advice. There are groups for a whole range of business types, so find some that sound appealing and get involved by answering questions, commenting and sharing articles that you find. By sharing your knowledge, you’ll position yourself as an industry expert and encourage other people to turn to you when they need help, services or products.
There are also Groups on LinkedIn focused on different locations, which can be very useful to join for local businesses.
Encourage personal testimonials
Recommendations are a key part of LinkedIn; you'll find these at the bottom of your personal profile. Encourage your customers and clients to leave you a recommendation on LinkedIn and you can then use this information on other marketing you send out.
On your company page, you can share testimonials from clients you've gained through other channels. For example, if you get a great review on TripAdvisor, share this as an update on your company page and link to the review itself. This helps build even more trust in your brand and gives you and your employees something to be proud of.
LinkedIn is an ideal place for local business owners to build up their company brand through making the most of their individual and business profiles. Follow these tips on six free things you can do and see how you can attract more potential customers.
If you would like to read more about the importance of social media channels, and what’s right for your business, try the following:
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