When people think of LinkedIn, the first thought that comes to their mind is typically talent acquisition. HR managers use LinkedIn to source quality candidates for employment at their companies. However, the second thought that comes to mind is networking. In terms of networking and promoting your own company, LinkedIn is an ideal forum for businesses to reach potential B2B customers. Like any new marketing program, there are certain best practices we recommend to get the most out of that effort, including LinkedIn.
1. Complete Your Company Profile
Think of your company’s LinkedIn profile as a business listing. Like any business listing, you want all of the relevant company information present on your page. This includes:
- The company name
- Address
- Phone number and additional contact information
- Link to the company’s main website
- Industry the company would be categorized by
- A Google Maps plug-in that provides directions to your company’s location(s)
Outside of the basic information, you should have a profile picture and a banner. The profile picture is typically a company logo and the banner is something to a similar effect only bigger. You also want to have a well-worded ‘About’ section to provide some information about your products and services. Include a company inception year, briefly discuss its history, and describe the markets and industries you serve. Be sure to use relevant keywords to aid your organic SEO efforts.
Research has shown that companies with fully completed pages generally receive two times as many visitors than those with incomplete pages. So it’s important to provide all of the pertinent information; it’s also more professional and can only help your digital reputation. Here is an example of a LinkedIn company page that is properly formatted with the correct information.
2. Utilize Showcase Pages
Once you have your company’s basic information filled out, you should start to look into some of LinkedIn’s features for business pages. One of the best features for highlighting your company’s services is the Showcase pages feature. Showcase pages are separate pages under your company’s larger umbrella page that are dedicated to specific aspects of your business, such as an individual service that you provide. Showcase pages can appeal to particular sub-markets and niches that you are trying to get a larger market share of. If you are trying to establish a new product or service for your business, creating a new Showcase page to highlight that new service is an excellent idea.
Showcase pages are ideal for companies that offer professional business services. Law firms use Showcase pages to highlight the different areas of their law firm’s practice. A law firm might have a Showcase page for their commercial real estate practice, a Showcase page for their intellectual property practice, and a page for their secured lending services. Highlighting the different areas of your business’s service offerings is an efficient way to appeal to specific markets and provide your company with better visibility within those markets.
Here is an example of a company that does an excellent job using Showcase pages. Deloitte is a global management consulting firm whose many business practices offer a variety of different consulting services. You can see that they have Showcase pages titled Deloitte Government, Tax & Legal, Human Capital Platform, and countless others.
3. Remember the Keys of Content: Variety & Consistency
You’ve created your main company page and hopefully have set-up a few Showcase pages to highlight your various services. Now that we have established a foundation for your business on LinkedIn, it’s time to stock your pages with quality content and build a following. To build a following, you need to provide value to your audience in the form of relevant high value content. Like any social media page, you also want to make sure you’re posting content with some variety. You do not want to be stale in your approach. Finally, remember to post consistently to keep your target audience engaged for sustained periods of time.
Here are some content ideas for your LinkedIn company page:
- Company news. Do you have a new hire? Did someone just get a promotion? Are you moving locations? Post about it! Keep your following informed about the inner workings of the company.
- Industry news. Every follower you gain on your LinkedIn page will be following you for a reason. That reason more than likely has something to do with the industry your company is in. Provide your following with relevant industry happenings to keep their interest.
- Job openings. LinkedIn is a multi-faceted platform and one of the pillars of the platform is its job-finding capabilities. You can attract fantastic talent for your business and generate some great engagement by posting open job opportunities at your company.
- New Product or Services Launch. Promote your new products or services through announcements on your company page.
- Customer Spotlights. Show appreciation for your clients by giving them a shoutout on your page. This is an excellent way of strengthening customer relationships and showcasing your customer service to other potential clients
Here is an example of an accounting firm that has an optimal posting mix that demonstrates both variety and consistency.
4. Get Your Employees Involved
The key to success on social media platforms is reach, and wide reach is achieved only through engagement. The best place to start with engagement on your company’s social media outlets is through your employees. Here are some techniques to keep in mind when coming up with ways to get your employees involved with your company’s LinkedIn presence.
- Tagging your company. If an employee sees something interesting on their LinkedIn newsfeed, encourage them to tag your company on the article or post in the comment section. This is an easy way of giving your company some visibility on LinkedIn.
- Sharing content your company posts about. If you’re launching a new service offering and want to get the word out, your employees should share any posts the company posts about the new service on their own personal LinkedIn pages.
- Add a link to their email signature. It’s definitely a good idea to embed a button that leads to your company’s page within your employees’ email signatures or sign-offs.
- Encourage commenting and liking posts. Engagement is the key here and the more interactions your employees have with the company page, the more visible your company will be on the LinkedIn platform.
- Responding to comments. If you post something from the company page and it is gaining traction in the form of comments from people outside of your company, encourage your employees to engage with those people.
Did we miss anything about LinkedIn marketing? Need more information on incorporating LinkedIn into your marketing strategy? Let’s talk. Feel free to contact our team at MA1440.
MA1440 is a marketing consulting and digital agency located in Glenview, IL – serving small and mid-sized businesses locally and nationally.
