In order to have a successful digital marketing strategy, your company must have a LinkedIn business account.
Did you know that LinkedIn has 500 million members? The social media outlet for professionals is so popular that it adds 2 members per second.
Nearly 6 billion professional searches are conducted per year. With this massive participation rate, it is clear that LinkedIn can be an effective tool for advertising and marketing.
Creating a business account on LinkedIn should be part of your company’s digital marketing strategy. Read on for 10 tips to creating a successful LinkedIn business account.
1) Hire Someone to Manage the Company’s LinkedIn Business Account
Make no mistake; managing multiple different social media accounts is a full-time job. Updating social media accounts in your spare time is not an effective use of the tool.
There needs to be someone at the helm to communicate with prospective customers and network with business partners.
Company executives should certainly take part in social media strategy. However, the grind of updating pages and quickly responding to communication attempts demands a dedicated employee.
LinkedIn provides an inexpensive means for advertising and marketing. Considering this, a full-time social media manager is worth the added expense.
2) Post Updates Regularly
Unfortunately, many small to moderate-sized businesses fail to update social media accounts regularly. This failure typically goes hand-in-hand with hiring a dedicated social media manager.
Posting regularly allows businesses to stay fresh in the minds of clients and partners. One effective strategy is to publish or share content relevant to your market or industry.
By sharing self-published content or blogs, you can utilize these posts to drive traffic to your website.
In addition to sharing engaging content, you can keep customers informed of press releases.
3) Make Sure Contact Information Is Accurate and Complete
This is straightforward and simple to do. Surprisingly, many companies do not completely utilize the “About” section of the LinkedIn business account.
First and foremost, the company should provide potential clientele with multiple avenues to make contact. This includes address, phone numbers, and an e-mail address that is frequently checked.
Lastly, ensure the “About” section includes a link to the company’s website and other social media accounts.
4) Emphasize Core Products and Services
When a new customer visits your company’s LinkedIn page, you want them to immediately understand what the business is all about. Product placement allows you to achieve this objective.
LinkedIn’s Products and Services page allows a business to list and market what they sell. The first product or service that is listed on this page is also highlighted as featured content on the account’s home page.
The company’s social media manager should be cognizant of this. The product or service that generates the most revenue should be listed first to take advantage of the dual feature.
5) Use Visual Imagery to Your Advantage
The importance of imagery is well-known in the marketing world and cannot be understated. In today’s fast-paced, mobile world, people are more likely to absorb images than text.
For this reason, an effective LinkedIn business account will deploy a meaningful profile photo and cover image.
Often, the company’s logo will serve as the LinkedIn profile photo. However, the social media manager must determine whether the logo communicates the company’s message and purpose to visitors. Imagery should be used in lieu of the logo if it fails to achieve this end.
The cover photo should meet the same criteria. For instance, a law firm may use a photo of lady justice for the cover. This photo will instantly tell prospective clientele that the firm seeks justice for those that they represent.
6) Request that Employees Connect with the Business Account
The more connections the better for a LinkedIn profile. All employees should identify that they work for the company.
By doing so, your company will expand its business network to a whole new group of connections.
7) Encourage Employees to Share Company Content and News
This is a great way to increase the reach of content posts and news releases. Your employees can share company posts and spread that information to the people in their network.
As a result, the company can grow their social media presence and make connections with a larger network.
8) Request Feedback from Customers and Business Partners
One of the benefits of social media is increased communication with all stakeholders. Do not be shy about asking for feedback on content and/or products and services.
This feedback is extremely valuable. Small and moderate-sized businesses often fall victim to tunnel vision. It is wise to accept constructive criticism from neutral third parties.
Ask your LinkedIn connections what type of content they would like to see more of. Take polls of your connections to see if they found content valuable. Lastly, request product or service reviews to see what is working and what is not.
This is important during the early phases of your LinkedIn business account. More likely than not, there will be mistakes and this feedback will help correct issues.
9) Address Customer Feedback and Publish Your Findings
For clients and business partners, there is one thing more frustrating than identifying a weakness or deficiency with a product: a failure to address those issues.
It is not a good business practice to request feedback and then merely ignore it. This is likely to turn customers off and push them to companies that are more receptive of problem-solving.
If the company determines that negative feedback is legitimate, publish a corrective action plan on social media to share with your connections. Customers and partners alike will appreciate the transparency. It will also help create a better long-term account.
10) Draw Attention to Sales Promotions or Big Company News
LinkedIn gives users the ability to feature specific posts. If this option is selected, that post will be highlighted or pinned to the top of the business account’s home page.
Like Facebook, regular posts get pushed down the totem pole as newer posts take its place. By pinning a sales promotion or announcement, you ensure it stays at the top of the pecking order and draws the most attention to visitors.
Wrapping It Up
LinkedIn can be an effective tool for executing a successful digital marketing campaign. This social media platform allows you to inexpensively advertise and market products and services.
With the right touch, you can grow your company’s social media network and increase sales as a result. For more information about creating a LinkedIn business account, please do not hesitate to contact us for assistance.
