Within part one of this article, we explored the best ways to use LinkedIn as an individual.
As well as there being plenty of opportunities for individuals to utilise LinkedIn to their advantage, businesses can also benefit.
Below we discuss ways in which it can be used for business.
1. Brand Awareness
Create a LinkedIn Business Page and show off what your business does. Let your employees know that the page is live, and encourage them to follow and share it with their network. Also ask them to add it within the ‘Experience’ section on their own profile.
Grow your page following further by sharing the page with your customers, clients and partners, and highlight it on your website in the form of a button.
You can also grow the page following using the ‘Invite Connections To Follow’ feature. This gives page admins of the business page the opportunity to invite their connections to follow the page. 100 credits are available per month; and these are returned when someone accepts the invitation. This means that more than 100 invitations can be sent, depending on the number that is accepted. It is also worth noting that these credits do not roll over, so it is worth using them up month by month. Engage and empower your employees to help grow the awareness of the brand or business they are working for.
Once you have built a decent following, consistency is also key here too, so post regular updates about the business and also share content that is relevant to the sector. Also, hit the ‘Notify Employee’ button on a new post when you really want to boost the engagement.
2. Employee engagement
Use your LinkedIn Business Page to really engage your employees and turn them into ambassadors for your business. As well as encouraging them to follow and share the company page and notifying them of a new post to increase engagement, encourage them to share their own news and experiences with the business in their own updates. This could be anything from hitting a sales target to sharing how they improved communication within their team.
These updates from employees shouting about the business will only increase exposure and show others that these employees are proud of the company they work for.
To add to this, recognise specific employee achievements and shout about them in posts on the business page.
3. Recruitment
Use the platform for recruitment. Share job adverts on your page and request employees to share or even recommend their connections if appropriate. You’ll widen the search pool this way, and will potentially attract like-minded candidates who may fit the team well if they are connections of existing employees.
Join industry-specific groups and see who is making noise within your industry. Who has an interesting take on a subject that’s attracted your attention? Set up an informal chat with them in order to learn more and to see if they could be suited to any current vacancies or any that may come up in the future.
LinkedIn can be hugely beneficial for both individuals and businesses when used to its full potential. Put in place some of the strategies above and wait to see the results. If you have any further tips, we’d love to hear them.
We can see that the potential for individuals and businesses to use LinkedIn to their advantage is vast when certain strategies are implemented and are consistent. These strategies will take time, so like with all marketing, test the water to ensure that LinkedIn is the best platform to channel your energies. At GWS, we understand that time may be limited and you may feel more comfortable outsourcing, whether it’s strategy, implementation, or both, get in touch if you want to discuss how we may be able to help.
If you missed part one, How to get the most from LinkedIn for Individuals, you can read it here.
