A social network presence for your company is increasingly becoming a vital tool in your marketing mix. A lot of organisations are cracking audiences via Twitter and Facebook but don’t forget you can target professionals with a company page on LinkedIn too.
Anicca Digital can help you set-up, run and manage social network profiles but here’s a quick and easy guide to getting started on LinkedIn for business.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social network with almost 120 million users which enables members to network professionally, post and find jobs, answer industry-related questions and increase the visibility of their profile and that of their company.
Setting-up a personal profile
Before you start utilizing LinkedIn as a business tool first you need to establish a personal profile which will ultimately be the ‘first impression’ of your business so make it look professional to avoid giving the wrong impression.
Personal LinkedIn profile content
Photo – make sure you choose a professional looking photo of yourself and not just one of you in the pub with your friends on a Friday night
Up-to-date work history – this is your chance to add in those details from your C.V. You can then link your job to your employer’s company page
Summary – Add in a detailed professional summary to give a quick overview of your key skills, knowledge and experience
Education – Include details of the college or university you attended along with the course and qualification details to show prospective clients and co-workers that you really know your stuff
Recommendations – You can send requests to current/or past colleagues to write a short endorsement to enhance your skills and capabilities
Twitter account – by linking your Twitter account to your profile people will be able to view a Twitter feed on the right hand side of your LinkedIn profile. Alternatively, there are rules which can be set so that only Tweets containing #in or #li will be shown on your LinkedIn profile
Networking
Now you have a professional profile you can start networking by:
– Reaching out to past and previous colleagues / employers to ‘connect’ with
– Searching status updates for people talking about your niche and connect with them
– Searching ‘answers’ for your niche – you can find and connect with people asking/answering questions as well as answering them yourself
– Searching for relevant ‘Groups’ and join them, contribute to group discussions and connect with other members on a one-to-one basis
Company profile
Company pages provide three ways for a company to promote themselves on LinkedIn:
– Overview Tab – featuring complete information about your company
– Products/services tab – allows you to add all your company’s products/services individually and describe them in detail
– Company status updates – anyone set-up as an ‘admin’ can add status updates onto the company page – which all followers will see
LinkedIn job ads
If you are hiring, you can attract relevant professionals by posting the job on LinkedIn. This can either be done via the ‘Careers’ tab on your company page (which also provides a ‘Premium’ option) or via your own profile toolbar.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads are another way to promote your company and/or your products and services. Your ads can either link to your LinkedIn company page or your website. You can target your ads specifically to people in the industry as well as by location.
Applications
Both personal and company profiles can integrate ‘Apps’ in order to add new content to the page. These can include links to blogs as well as Events and Slideshows.
Apps can add an extra dimension to your profiles and provide visitors with more information about you and your company.
