How a defined LinkedIn strategy can boost brand recognition and lead generation.
9/6/2019 9:00
If someone asked you how your company tackles lead generation, would LinkedIn be part of your answer? If it’s not, it should be.
With more than 610 million global users, LinkedIn is a professional network you can’t afford to overlook. Not only can it brand your company to a targeted audience, but it can also help you attract new clients and nurture current relationships. It does take a little work, though, so we checked in with a few social media experts to get their tips on crafting a strong LinkedIn strategy, Collector magazine Managing Editor Anne Rosso May reports in the September issue.
Your Profile
It all starts with your LinkedIn profile, which Steven Gan, president of Stellar Risk Management Services, says should be “impressive.” Approach your profile the same way you would your website or a corporate brochure. “You want to put your best foot forward,” Gan said.
Profiles that include a photo get up to 21 times more views and 36 times more messages than profiles without a photo, according to LinkedIn. Your executive team members should have personal LinkedIn accounts with recent headshots or professional-looking photos. For your company page, size your logo to fit LinkedIn’s profile photo dimensions (300 x 300 pixels).
The horizontal image behind your profile photo is known as the banner. LinkedIn automatically populates this space with a neutral photo, but you can customize it to fit your brand and help your page stand out. LinkedIn suggests using your banner to display team photos or advertise seasonal events.
Your "About" section should succinctly explain what your company does, where it’s based, your values and mission and how people can contact you. Complete all the categories in this section.
You may wonder which is more important: a carefully crafted company page or strong personal profiles for your executive team and managers? The answer is both, because they serve different functions.
Company pages tell the world what your company does. They give you credibility and boost your SEO rankings, and you can use your company page to run LinkedIn ads.
Personal profiles tell the world about the people who make your company successful, Rosso May reports.
Plus, when it comes to lead generation, “you will have more success with a LinkedIn personal profile than with a company profile,” Gan said. “The reason is that with a company profile we have followers, and with personal profiles you have connections.”
Why does this matter? On a company page, you don’t automatically know who is following you—you don’t have followers’ names and can’t reach out to them until they start to interact with your posts. But with personal connections, you have access to each of their profiles, which can yield a ton of valuable marketing data.
While you should encourage all your team members to use LinkedIn, your marketing and sales team should be the most active employees on the platform, according to Matthew Tudge, digital marketing specialist at WDA Branding Derby.
Another tip: content creators on LinkedIn make more connections than content readers. Promote seminars you’re hosting, trumpet awards you’ve received, and share your thoughts on industry trends not just on your page, but in relevant LinkedIn groups.
“When people are browsing LinkedIn, they’re drawn to content that their connections have shared or posted,” said Eric Hoppe, director of marketing for
Crowd Content Media Inc. “If you post an article on LinkedIn, it sends a notification to your connections and invites them to read your article. This is extremely powerful because it lets you familiarize yourself with your connections who may not know you that well yet, which makes it easier to reach out to them when you want to pitch your services. Additionally, you can include links in your article to other content you’ve created, calls to action, lead magnets, etc. that can get your connections to reach out to you.”
Read more on LinkedIn strategies, including building connections and how to interact with those connections, in the September issue of Collector magazine.
Visit ACA International’s Publications website for more social media tips and click here to join our LinkedIn group.
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