Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
Just a few years ago, LinkedIn seemed to be on life support, the social media platform people only used to look for jobs or find new clients.
Today, people are questioning the value and viability of former social powerhouses like Facebook and Twitter, while LinkedIn has become a top business-to-business (B2B) marketing platform.
This article explains what you need to do to maximize the use of your LinkedIn to promote your business.
How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile to Promote Your Business
Optimize Your Page for Search
Most marketers associate SEO with Google. However, it’s a LinkedIn thing, as well.
People often use the search function on LinkedIn to seek out the kinds of companies and content they’re interested in. It’s critical to incorporate relevant keywords in your page’s headline, tagline, and summary. Add those and other keywords to your posts. Similar to Google, don’t overdo it with the keywords on LinkedIn. Use them appropriately to send signals to LinkedIn about what your page, company, and content are about.
Customize Your URL to Stay on Brand
You don’t have to keep the random numbers and letters that LinkedIn uses to generate page URLs. You can change your URL, so it reflects your business.
To change your LinkedIn URL, go to your business page:
In the left sidebar, select Edit Page
Next, click on Page
Under the header, LinkedIn Public URL, change the suffix of your URL in the text box
Click Save at the top of the box.
Once you make this change, people will be able to see your brand in your LinkedIn URL.
Include External Links to Expand Your Website Traffic
Whether it’s to improve brand awareness, get appointments, generate leads, or make sales, your ultimate LinkedIn B2B marketing goal is to move people from LinkedIn to your website, blog, or landing page. The best way to do this is to include links to your ultimate destination in your profile and all your posts.
Find a Branded Design and Stick With It
Maintaining a consistent branded presence on LinkedIn by using consistent colors, imagery styles, logo placement, and other design cues in your header and posts will build brand awareness. As people experience your brand on LinkedIn, they’ll gain a deeper understanding of what it’s about, what your company does, and the things that make it unique.
Bonus points: Continue your LinkedIn brand experience on your website and landing pages. It will help prevent disconnects between the LinkedIn and on-site experience that could harm your results.
Monitor Your Data so You Know What's Working
One of the things LinkedIn has improved significantly in the last few years is its analytics capabilities. It makes it easy to figure out what’s working by monitoring clicks, likes, and shares. And if you promote your posts, you can test messages and images against each other to see which performs best with the people you’re targeting. You can also see how your results compare to other businesses in your industry.
If you’re not using all of LinkedIn’s metrics monitoring capabilities, you’re missing out on one of its most powerful ways to maximize your marketing results.
Post Content That Provides Value
Your LinkedIn marketing results will only be as good as the content it links to. Overpromising on a post and underdelivering on your site will not only hurt the results of your current campaign but could also harm your brand for a long time to come.
Always make sure your content delivers value to the people in your target audience. Tell stories, demonstrate how your business can help, express your opinion on an industry topic, and explain industry trends. In short, create content your audience wants to read, listen to, or watch. More importantly, ensure they’re getting something for the time they’re investing in it by monitoring your on-page metrics in Google Analytics.
Use Your Authentic Brand Voice to Show You’re Trustworthy
People often consider LinkedIn the “professional” social media platform. And it often takes on an artificially formal tone because of this reputation. Use your brand’s authentic voice and tone on LinkedIn. If users experience one type of messaging on LinkedIn and another on your website and other social networks, they’ll lose trust. People will only buy goods and services from businesses they trust, not ones that send mixed messages.
Use the Right Hashtags for Real Leads
Hashtags can superpower your LinkedIn posts. They help connect your content with the people who are interested in it. Don’t hashtag pack. Instead, select a few meaningful ones that will help LinkedIn users better understand what your post is about.
Leverage Different Media for a More Complete Experience
Different people respond to different things. That’s why it’s a good idea to change things up on LinkedIn. Some of your posts could feature text. Add some posts featuring visuals, videos, polls, and event invitations. You will be more likely to connect with a wider range of people.
Post Content Consistently to Stay Relevant
Set up a regular rhythm and cadence for posting on LinkedIn. Watch engagement with your content. If you post a lot and the distribution of your content and engagement with it falls, it could be a sign you are posting too often. If you post infrequently but get significant distribution and engagement with your content, it could indicate that you should be posting more.
Find the right cadence for your business and audience, and stick with it. It’s the final step to optimizing your LinkedIn business profile.
Check it out: Learn about other ways to use social media to get people to check out your content.
