LinkedIn has become an indispensable platform for professionals to build their personal brand, connect with others, and advance their careers. With over 722 million members worldwide, it’s also an attractive place for businesses to market themselves and generate leads.
But is it okay to use LinkedIn primarily as a channel for self-promotion and driving sales? Or should you focus on building relationships and providing value to your connections?
The Benefits of Promoting Your Business on LinkedIn
Here are some potential benefits of using LinkedIn as a platform to promote your products and services:
- Huge audience – With hundreds of millions of members, LinkedIn gives you access to a massive professional audience.
- Targeted marketing – You can target ads and content very precisely based on job title, industry, location, interests, and more.
- Thought leadership – By sharing valuable insights, perspectives, and resources, you can establish yourself as a trusted expert.
- Brand awareness – Promoting your business builds familiarity with your brand, offerings, and mission.
- Lead generation – LinkedIn’s lead gen forms and sponsored content allow you to collect leads from interested prospects.
- Recruitment – You can attract and recruit talented professionals to your company.
The platform’s demographics and features lend themselves well to promoting businesses and driving measurable results.
Potential Drawbacks of Too Much Self-Promotion
However, there are some risks and drawbacks to be aware of if you rely too heavily on self-promotion on LinkedIn:
- Annoying followers – Excessive broadcasting about your company may cause connections to ignore or unfollow you.
- Appear salesy – A constant sales pitch can damage your credibility and thought leadership efforts.
- Lack of engagement – One-way promotion provides little value to others and earns minimal engagement.
- Reduced reach – LinkedIn’s algorithm may throttle your reach if your content is too promotional.
- Negative reputation – You may get a reputation for spam and be seen as self-interested rather than caring about your network.
Overt selling can backfire on LinkedIn, costing you followers and harming your brand image. The best approach blends promotion with value and relationship-building.
Best Practices for Promoting Your Business on LinkedIn
Here are some recommended best practices for effectively promoting your business without being overly salesy on LinkedIn:
- Educate – Share insights, perspectives, how-to guides, case studies, and other useful content.
- Entertain – Mix in engaging videos, images, stories, quotes, polls, and other multimedia.
- Inspire – Post inspirational and uplifting content that provides value beyond your products.
- Celebrate – Highlight company milestones, employeespotlights, awards, and events.
- Reply and engage – Have real conversations to build relationships.
- Listen – Pay attention to content that resonates with your audience for insights.
- Balance – For every promotional post, share one or two purely valuable posts.
- Be selective – Only broadcast to your entire network occasionally, when appropriate.
The 80/20 rule is a good guideline – 80% of your content should be valuable and non-promotional, while 20% can directly promote your business and offerings. This balance builds trust and credibility.
Guidelines for LinkedIn Company Pages
Your LinkedIn Company Page is the hub for promoting your brand. Follow these tips:
- Complete – Flesh out all sections – overview, products, career pages, locations, analytics, etc.
- Optimize – Include relevant keywords in descriptions, content, and job listings.
- Engage – Post regular updates sharing company news, content, and media.
- Be responsive – Promptly respond to comments, messages, and follower conversations.
- Promote – Cross-promote your Company Page to build your follower count.
- Analyze – Study follower demographics, engagement, and content analytics to refine your strategy.
An optimized and active Company Page establishes credibility and gives you a hub to reach LinkedIn members.
Leveraging LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content
In addition to organic content promotion, you can amplify your reach and results with LinkedIn’s advertising options:
- Sponsored content – Native ads in the LinkedIn feed targeted to your audience.
- Sponsored InMail – Send targeted direct messages to members via InMail.
- Text ads – Highly targeted pay-per-click text ads.
- Dynamic ads – Automatically generated and optimized ads.
When using ads, focus on delivering value and relevance to members to drive positive ROI rather than hard-selling.
LinkedIn Advertising Best Practices
- Target carefully based on member demographics, interests, and intent signals.
- Test different formats, creatives, audiences, and placements.
- Use action-oriented calls-to-action.
- Retarget engaged visitors or past customers.
- Measure results and optimize based on key metrics.
Well-targeted and relevant ads align well with the user experience on LinkedIn while allowing you to scale your reach and promotion.
LinkedIn Lead Generation Tools
To move LinkedIn connections into your sales funnel, use built-in lead generation tools:
- Lead Gen Forms – Request contact info with customized forms.
- Lead Gen Ads – Drive form fills with targeted text/image ads.
- LinkedIn Elevate – Share curated content with your best leads.
These features allow you to gather prospects’ contact information and monitor lead activity right within LinkedIn.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Lead Generation
- Only request essential contact details needed for follow-up.
- Send requested content to lead gen form fillers as promised.
- Ensure your privacy policy and opt-out options are clearly visible.
- Provide valuable content or incentives in exchange for contact details.
- Follow up quickly when you receive new leads.
Being transparent and delivering on your promises will drive higher lead quality and conversion rates.
Rules and Restrictions for Promoting on LinkedIn
While LinkedIn provides excellent options for promoting your business, their terms and policies strictly prohibit certain tactics:
- No sending unsolicited messages or connection requests.
- No inappropriate content – offensive, illegal, or discriminatory.
- No false or misleading claims about your products/services.
- No publishing other members’ private information without consent.
- No creation of fake accounts or deceptive activity.
- No overuse of targeting, retargeting, or interest-based ads.
Violating these policies can get your account restricted or banned. Ensure all promotion aligns with LinkedIn’s guidelines.
Warning Signs You Are Too Promotional on LinkedIn
Watch for these red flags that indicate you may need to recalibrate your approach:
- Declining follower growth or followers unsubscribing.
- Decreasing engagement rates (likes, comments, shares, clicks).
- Negative feedback or complaints about your activity.
- Low response rates to your outreach and messages.
- LinkedIn limiting your visibility or reach.
If you see these issues arising, focus on providing greater value to rebuild your relationships and reputation.
Conclusion
Promoting your business in a relevant, ethical, and moderated way on LinkedIn can be beneficial. But overly aggressive self-promotion risks damaging your brand and relationships. The best strategy is sharing a mix of promotional and non-promotional content that provides value.
Leverage Company Pages, targeted ads, lead generation tools, and other features responsibly. But always keep the user experience in mind. With the right balance, you can achieve excellent business development results on LinkedIn without compromising your credibility and connections.