With over 200 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the social networking site that is focused on business. Users’ profiles are designed more like a CV than other social networks, displaying details about current and previous employment, education and showcasing skills. Many companies are now starting to see and reap the benefits of using LinkedIn as part of their social media strategy.
How Can Businesses Use LinkedIn?
Although all profiles are personal profiles, businesses are able to create a Company Page. This is a page which any LinkedIn member can follow and includes news and updates, products and services and job opportunities.
Similarly to Facebook, LinkedIn users can comment, like and share posts. These interactions with posts then show up on the profiles of users and in their friend’s home pages. The more interesting the content, the more follower engagement and thus the more the post will be seen.
About 24 hours after you have posted an update to your company page, you will be able to view insights for that post including the number of impressions on that post (i.e. how many people saw it) and the percentage of engagement with it from those that saw it. Engagement is measured by numbers of likes, comments, shares and clicks (where a link is supplied).
3 Simple Ways to Get Followers:
- Add a “follow” button to your website
- Announce your page on your blog or in your enewsletter
- Contribute to discussions in relevant LinkedIn groups and include a link to your company page at the bottom of your post.
Top Tips for Posting
- Post at the relevant times. According to LinkedIn, their busiest times are mornings, Monday to Friday.
- Keep your posts short
- Post at least once every week day
- As with other social media outlets, posts should be interesting and informative, not just promotional statements about your business.
- Using links in your posts is a great way to track engagement. If you write a snippet of text leading into a link and you receive lots of clicks on that link, you will know that you have successfully engaged your followers with that particular post.
- One significant feature that LinkedIn pages have over Facebook pages in the ability to target posts to a specific audience. When posting, you can select to share with ‘Everyone’ or ‘Targeted Audience’. If you select the latter, you will be prompted to specify who that audience is, selecting targeting criteria in the areas of geography, job function, industry, company size, and seniority. The more targeted a post, the more likely it is to engage those that it is targeted to.
- Pose questions to your followers in your posts, encourage them to enter into discussion.
- Engagement-wise, videos are the most popular type of post. Linking to relevant videos on YouTube can be an excellent way of spiking the interest of your followers.
Check out The Web Taylor’s LinkedIn page