LinkedIn is designed to be professional and focused on businesses. While it’s a social media network, it is a higher level than your average network, which makes it ideal for lead generation. If you run a Business-to-Business (B2B) company, you definitely need to be on LinkedIn.
Since it’s more business-friendly, the site can be a little confusing for people. It’s not as obvious as Instagram or Facebook, so how do you get noticed?
Step One: Complete Your Profile
Your profile on LinkedIn should be completely filled out. Make sure you add a photo, background information, and samples of your work or a link to your past jobs. This is essential in appearing professional on the site.
If you, like many people, already have a languishing profile there, take some time to perk it up. Add new content, update your contact information and image, and generally give it a polish. You’ll look more prepared.
You should also update your profile URL. This is assigned to you, but you can create an easier-to-remember option that is simpler to share on other sites.
Step Two: Add Connections
LinkedIn will prompt you to start adding people you know. Add those you are already connected to and then begin to explore other connections. On this particular site, you can connect with those who are friends with your existing contacts.
Step Three: Create a Company Page
Go to Interest, then Companies, and select Create. You will be given a few questions to fill out about your company, and then your page will be set up. From there, you will need to add in more information and images. Include your logo in these images.
Keep in mind that everyone from clients to those looking for jobs will see your business page. Once you have added everything you want to, click on “publish,” and let your page go alive.
Step Four: Link Your Company and Personal Profile
With the business page up and running, it’s time to link your two pages together. Go to your personal profile and add the company to your list of jobs. This will allow you to connect the pages. This is something you can also get your employees to do, which will help build up your reputation online, and add more connections to your account.
Step Five: Interact
As a social network, LinkedIn has plenty of ways for you to join in the conversation and get noticed. You can join discussion groups and begin conversations, answer questions, etc., and generally get yourself out there. You can also comment on people’s articles and send messages to those in the same discussion groups. All of this comes around to lead generation, as more and more people will begin to recognize you.
Step Six: Post Quality Articles
LinkedIn is a great place to post excellent articles. While you can publish shorter articles of up to 250 words on your profile, you may want to use the Publisher platform to add longer articles that will draw more attention. Research has shown that 2,000-3,000 word articles get the most shares on the site, so this is a good number to aim for.
While you don’t have to post all the time, it’s a good idea to publish a relevant article a couple times a month and share it on your other social media sites. This will help build up recognition and people will tend to share high-quality articles.
Step Seven: Update Regularly
Like any other social media network, if you’re not active on the platform, people will lose interest and tend not to bother with you. It’s best to be active every day, even if it’s just a quick update and checking your messages.
Conclusion
LinkedIn could well be the best option for your lead generation, but it is often overlooked. Make sure you get on the bandwagon and add another method for people to find you online.
