LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 690 million users worldwide. As a business, LinkedIn offers a plethora of opportunities to establish your brand, connect with customers, hire talent and drive sales. Here are some of the key things businesses can do on LinkedIn:
Create a Company Page
Having a LinkedIn Company Page is crucial for establishing your brand’s presence on the platform. Company Pages allow you to showcase information about your business, products/services, culture, jobs and more. You can use your Company Page to:
- Share company updates, articles, images and videos
- Promote products and services
- Recruit new talent by posting job openings
- Foster engagement by allowing followers to comment on posts
- Communicate important announcements like new product releases
With a Company Page, your business can publish content regularly to build connections with both potential customers and talent. Make sure to keep the Page updated with your latest products, initiatives and job postings.
Connect with Customers
LinkedIn has over 310 million monthly active users, providing access to a huge audience of professionals and businesses. As a company, you can leverage LinkedIn to directly engage with your target customers online.
Some key ways to connect with customers include:
- Joining relevant LinkedIn Groups in your industry to participate in discussions
- Following influencers and thought leaders who appeal to your audience
- Commenting on Posts from connections to provide value
- Sharing helpful articles, infographics and other media
- Sending connection requests to prospects along with personalized InMail messages
- Running targeted ads to reach your demographic
The goal is to provide value to your connections through insightful content while building relationships. With time, this can convert contacts into loyal brand advocates.
Attract Talent
LinkedIn is the top channel used by both recruiters and job seekers today. For businesses, it provides access to a vast pool of diverse professional talent.
To attract top talent, companies can leverage LinkedIn to:
- Post job openings on the LinkedIn Jobs page which gets millions of weekly visitors
- Search the LinkedIn database using filters to find qualified candidates
- Ask employees to post job listings in relevant LinkedIn Groups to boost visibility
- Promote your Company Page and employee culture to engage potential applicants
- Use LinkedIn Recruiter to identify, connect with and manage talent prospects
- Display Company Life and Careers Pages detailing employee benefits, perks and more
Having an active presence on LinkedIn along with utilizing its recruiting features can help businesses discover and hire the best professionals.
Generate Leads
In addition to inbound lead generation from content marketing and social engagement, LinkedIn offers paid advertising capabilities to help companies actively acquire new leads.
Some of the advertising options include:
- Sponsored Content to showcase posts in the LinkedIn feed
- Sponsored InMail for personalized direct outreach
- Text Ads to drive visitors to your site with customized targeting
- Dynamic Ads that promote specific products/services to relevant professionals
- Conversation Ads to generate leads via customized chatbots
The platform’s detailed targeting and audience analytics allow you to refine campaigns and maximize your ad spend. Integrating marketing automation tools with LinkedIn ads can further optimize lead capture.
Drive Sales
While primarily known as a networking platform, LinkedIn also enables companies to directly generate revenue and sales.
Businesses can facilitate sales through LinkedIn by:
- Adding “Buy Now” buttons on Company Pages to sell products/services
- Promoting discounted offerings, deals and events
- Retargeting website visitors through LinkedIn ads
- Following up on leads generated via content or messaging
- Publishing customer testimonials and success stories
- Building relationships with decision-makers at prospective accounts
The platform makes it possible to market, advertise, prospect and sell right within the LinkedIn ecosystem. Many companies have integrated their backend sales systems with LinkedIn for optimized CX.
Conduct Market Research
The depth of professional data and demographics on LinkedIn lend well to performing market research. Businesses can derive key customer and competitive insights for strategy development and planning.
For market research, LinkedIn enables companies to:
- Analyze audience demographics and habits through LinkedIn Audience Insights
- Assess brand awareness and perception with LinkedIn Brand Lift
- Survey target customers using polls and questionnaires
- Monitor conversations and trends across LinkedIn Groups and feeds
- Connect with thought leaders to gain industry perspectives
- Research competitors and their online presence
LinkedIn essentially provides a microcosm of your total addressable market. Mining its data and connections can yield powerful consumer and competitive insights.
Showcase Company Culture
Promoting company culture and employer brand has become vital in attracting top talent today. LinkedIn provides businesses with ways to highlight their values and work environment.
Tactics for showcasing company culture include:
- Posting photos and videos that offer an inside look at the company
- Encouraging employees to publish about work events, achievements and learnings
- Sharing company reviews, testimonials and awards
- Creating Life and Careers pages to detail benefits, perks, facilities and more
- Leveraging the LinkedIn Company Buzz index to benchmark culture
- Publishing job listings emphasizing culture along with roles
This level of authenticity and transparency provides candidates with a feel for the company and team. It can be a major factor in employment decisions.
Promote Content
With LinkedIn’s expansive reach, it offers an ideal platform for businesses to distribute content. Sharing blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, videos and webinars with your network can help attract and inform customers.
To amplify content promotion, companies can:
- Upload and share media on LinkedIn Pulse for native publishing
- Post content links prominently on Company and Showcase Pages
- Promote content through status updates and feed posts
- Run Sponsored Content campaigns to extend reach beyond your network
- Repurpose and cross-link content across different LinkedIn Pages
- Leverage Groups, InMail and ads to target relevant audiences
The goal is to make your best content discoverable and shareable to both inform and inspire professionals on LinkedIn.
Partner with Influencers
Influencer marketing has emerged as an effective way for brands to build credibility and awareness. LinkedIn provides access to a wide range of influencers that businesses can partner with.
Potential partnerships to consider include:
- Securing endorsements from industry experts, authors and speakers
- Collaborating on content with marketers, bloggers and journalists
- Partnering with LinkedIn Group managers and community leaders
- Sponsoring events, webinars or content from influencers
- Getting featured experts to guest blog on your Company Page
- Co-marketing promotions, contests and giveaways
Aligning with reputable voices on LinkedIn can lend immense credibility and authority to your brand in the marketplace.
Monitor Your Brand
Keeping track of how your brand is perceived and what’s being said about your business is vital. LinkedIn provides tools to help companies monitor their brand effectively.
Key brand monitoring capabilities include:
- Setting Google alerts for brand mentions on LinkedIn
- Tracking LinkedIn search results for company name, products, etc.
- Using LinkedIn Signal to uncover industry/competitor intel
- Monitoring LinkedIn Groups, Influencers and Company Buzz
- Measuring employee advocacy and engagement rates
- Assessing interactions, followers and engagement for Company Page
Proactively monitoring LinkedIn conversations and brand visibility provides businesses with valuable feedback and data to refine their approach.
Generate Referrals
LinkedIn can serve as a powerful source of referrals for B2B companies targeting other businesses. The platform makes it easy to identify key decision-makers and tap into employee networks.
To generate more referrals, businesses can:
- Encourage employees to promote services, content and offers in their network
- Reward employees for generating qualified referrals
- Share case studies detailing work with clients to attract similar prospects
- Connect with prospects on LinkedIn to stay top of mind
- Use Sales Navigator to discover connections at target accounts
- Join Groups and build relationships with prospective customer communities
This “employee advocacy” approach along with group engagement provides a steady channel of referrals on LinkedIn.
Recruit Business Partners
LinkedIn isn’t just useful for hiring employees. It can also help businesses find, vet and recruit ideal business partners through the platform.
Tactics to identify strong prospective partners include:
- Searching profiles using keywords for partner qualifications
- Joining Groups focused on your industry vertical
- Connecting with prospects to evaluate capabilities
- Using Sales Navigator to identify contacts at target companies
- Posting partnership opportunities on your Company Page
- Requesting referrals from your LinkedIn network
Vetting service providers, distributors, technology vendors and other partners is made easier on LinkedIn through its wealth of professional insights.
Discover Competitors
LinkedIn provides extensive information not just on customers and employees, but also competitors. Businesses can research rival companies to inform competitive strategy.
Areas to research competitors include:
- Company size, funding status, and structure
- Leadership team and organizational hierarchy
- Employee growth and turnover rates
- Product/service offerings and messaging
- Partners, investors, and acquisitions
- Marketing content, campaigns and positioning
These insights can reveal weak spots to exploit as well as areas to emulate. LinkedIn’s Company Pages, employee profiles and Groups make competitive intel easily accessible.
Expand International Reach
For companies looking to take their business global, LinkedIn provides an avenue to identify and connect with prospects worldwide.
Key ways LinkedIn can help businesses go international include:
- Joining regional, national or local International Groups
- Following and interacting with overseas thought leaders
- Promoting multilingual Company Page content
- Advertising roles for regional Expats and returning nationals
- Targeting ads and content by location and language
- Researching region-specific cultural insights
With users spanning over 200 countries, LinkedIn serves as a vital hub for expanding into new international markets.
Conclusion
LinkedIn has developed into an integral platform for modern business marketing, recruiting, sales, research and relationship development. Companies that strategically leverage LinkedIn’s myriad tools and features can reap substantial benefits, from strengthening their employer brand to boosting the bottom line. While mastering every LinkedIn capability takes time, implementing even a few can provide a valuable competitive edge.