How To Leverage LinkedIn as a Small Business
At this point, every business professional is familiar with LinkedIn. Whether connecting with college classmates or searching for a new job, LinkedIn is a valuable asset. However, when it comes to growing your small business, LinkedIn can also be a great tool that can be leveraged efficiently and affordably. Today, we’re going to look at a few ways you can take advantage of your network and the tools LinkedIn offers to make the most out of this social channel.
Build Brand Awareness
While this might seem like an obvious tactic, making sure that people are aware of who your brand is and what you do is vital to get the best returns on your social strategy. Create content that gives insight into why you started your business or what values your business stands for. Being able to concisely explain what your business stands for is a valuable skill and makes buy-in from potential followers much easier. Another part of this tactic is making sure that your posts are consistent, both in content and timing. Don’t forget about LinkedIn for 6 weeks and then try to make up for it by posting 12 times in a week. Develop meaningful content and post it on a regular basis to help bolster the image of your brand in the minds of customers or clients.
Network, Network, Network
Once you create a company page, LinkedIn allows moderators of that page to invite up to 100 contacts a month to like the page. It’s as simple as clicking a button and selecting who you want to invite. Once a contact chooses to like your page, you actually get an invitation added back to your tally. Using this strategy with a responsive audiences means you could grow your page by triple digits every month without spending a dime. This also requires having an extensive personal network of contacts, so make personal connections as well! Seeing an invitation from a job title like “Founder” or “Owner” can also elicit a better response from potential connections.
Join Relevant Groups
LinkedIn offers groups for just about any industry, which serve as a forum for similar business people to discuss ideas and share advice. There are many groups tailored specifically to small businesses, such as LinkedIn Small Business Innovators and The Entrepreneur and Small Business Forum. Consider joining these groups to not only grow your audience, but learn valuable strategies that can help take your business to the next level.
Create a Campaign
Once you’ve taken advantage of the free tactics we’ve listed above and you’re ready to put some of your advertising budget towards LinkedIn, we recommend trying an InMail Campaign. These campaigns allow you to send personalized direct messages to any audience of your choosing. The messages come from your account, which adds a touch of personality to your message. These InMail campaigns can be a great way to drive traffic to your site for an about a quarter per message. Plus, LinkedIn offers insightful tracking metrics so you can see just how well your campaign has performed.