Best Practices for Marketing Your Company on LinkedIn

Anyone who wants to prove their professional chops should have a LinkedIn profile, and any company that focuses on B2B services should have a LinkedIn company page. There is no better place on the Internet to hone in on upper-level managers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and other decision-makers within your specific industry.

 

Believe it or not, LinkedIn results in more conversions than any other social networking site. If you’re looking for clients, this is the place to be, and if you fail to leverage LinkedIn as a B2B company, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

 

But as with any social media channel, simply creating a presence isn’t enough to secure success. With LinkedIn in particular, certain finesse is required to make meaningful connections and turn those connections into conversions.

 

You’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s start at the very beginning: your company page.

 

Use Your Company Page Effectively

 

Think of your company page as a full-out advertisement for your company. It should accomplish the same thing as your website, but in an abbreviated fashion; in other words, it should demonstrate exactly why your company is the company to hire or buy from.

 

Fill out your company page thoroughly. Use it to showcase your best work, so make sure the graphics are top-notch and that the writing is compelling (and free of errors). Get your first followers by inviting your employees to follow the page and to add the company to their personal profile.

 

You can list specialties, products or services on your company page, as well as post job opportunities and company updates. You can also invite clients or customers to provide product recommendations on your page.  

 

It’s important to keep your company’s information up-to-date and to post regular updates. Interesting industry or company updates are the main motivation for other users to follow your page. Offer insight, comment on trends, share interviews and celebrate company milestones within your updates. You can amass a following of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, and what your company has to offer. Nurture these connections.

 

Be Active in Groups

 

You can also highlight groups that you are active in on your company page. Depending on the nature of your company or industry, you might even create your own group. Groups can be a wonderful way to get to know your followers and peers, and to demonstrate your company’s expertise or highlight products.

 

You can host discussions to informally get a read on trends in the industry or to identify opportunities for your company to fill a service gap. In groups, you simply have more room to flex your creative muscle and to get to know the people in your community.

 

Advertise on LinkedIn

 

Like the other major social networking sites, LinkedIn has a self-serve advertising center, where you can create sponsored posts. Images are more likely to generate clicks and shares, so focus on having a compelling image to go along with your posts.

 

Be sure to have your advertisements lead to a dedicated landing page on your site, where visitors will be presented with a clear call to action. As with all advertisements, it’s a good idea to conduct A/B tests to determine the most effective methods for you and your audience.

 

Advertising on LinkedIn can also increase the number of followers to your company page, or members who join your group. Thus, following or joining can be good calls to action, although you should present a clear reason why doing so will benefit your audience.

 

Be Persistent in Your Efforts

 

To be clear, being persistent doesn’t mean that you spam people in the hope that they will cave in and buy your service. No one likes a nag.

 

However, you also cannot simply set up a company page and forget about it, and then expect it to still generate results. No one will follow your page just because you have a cool company logo. They need to be able to find you, which means you need to get your company’s name out there with advertisements, group activity, updates and articles published via LinkedIn Pulse.

 

Set up a realistic timeline and map out everything that you will do each day to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward. Re-evaluate the success of your efforts using LinkedIn’s built-in analytics, and adjust as needed.

 

As a B2B, it is more effective to focus your social media efforts on LinkedIn than any other platform, so make the most of it.