How to Use LinkedIn For Your Business

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a social network; and like all social media platforms, its overarching purpose is to connect users with each other. However, unlike most platforms, LinkedIn has a professional twist, and was initially designed as a site to showcase your resume, network with businesses, and job seek. With over 800 million active users, and 19 million from Canada alone, LinkedIn has grown to be a platform for businesses and organizations to showcase their products and services, and highlight their company culture. What are the benefits? It’s free, it has a wide reach, and because LinkedIn has a professional reputation, it can effectively complement your brand, and strengthen your online presence. So how do we get started?

Step 1 – Create a Personal Account

We first need to make an account for ourselves. This process is not unlike making a personal Facebook account. All we have to do is fill in our contact information, choose an appropriate profile picture and banner, and then detail our professional experience like we would on our resume.

Step 2 – Create a Company Page

Next, we must create a company page. This page will essentially be linked to our personal account –– and the process is similar to creating a business account on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. As reported by LinkedIn, accounts with their information completely filled generate 30% more views, so it’s important we fill out our information thoroughly. 

Step 3 – Brand Your Account

Imagine building a website. We want to be mindful and intentional about the imagery we choose to have on our page. As the owner of a company page, we’re given the liberty of uploading a logo and banner. Here, we want to ensure we’re using our appropriate brand colours, professional photos, and graphics with high resolution. 

Step 4 – Share Your Account

The final step is to share your account. Make your presence known. Because LinkedIn is already a platform that encourages user-to-user networking, expanding your connection list will be a natural process. It’s also a good idea to encourage your employees to share the company page, and have them update their profiles to reflect their affiliation.

How Can LinkedIn Be Used? 

Brand Building 

Social media is an important tool for building brand awareness and recognition. The more people see something, the more etched into their minds it becomes. Although LinkedIn began primarily as a recruiting and job seeking tool, 2020 saw a 60% increase in content creation. What does that mean for companies and brands? It means users are growing more and more accustomed to seeing content; and as more content circulates the platform, we’re seeing more opportunities for brands to increase their visibility. 

Networking

LinkedIn reported that interactions between connections grew over 50% from January 2020 to January 2021. This is very likely a consequence of our pandemic, as people became less able, and less willing, to connect and network in person. But humans are social beings. News, content and information will always find a way to spread. LinkedIn is like a honeycomb buzzing with interactions, so it’s important we leverage our networks and aim to expand it. The richer and deeper our networks, the more likely our content will spread.

Marketing & Promotion

On LinkedIn, promotional and educational content saw nine billion impressions in 2020. That’s 15 times more than job postings. It’s clear that LinkedIn isn’t simply a platform for recruitment anymore. It’s become a platform for businesses and organizations to market themselves. We’re seeing more and more product launches, service announcements, brands and businesses illustrating their company culture and success stories being published. What separates LinkedIn from a platform like Instagram, is business content doesn’t have to compete as much with personal content like selfies and family photos. 

Conclusion

Digital marketing is a powerful tool. As we discussed in our previous blog post, content creation and social media marketing are two of the most invaluable channels that encompass digital marketing. LinkedIn happens to incorporate both. What better platform to explore than one that already has a culture for networking, and already homes the most professionals around the world?