A million new users in nine days: Get your business on LinkedIn right now!
By Alexandra Reid
My colleague Linda turned me onto an excellent PR blog called the Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog where I now spend a considerable amount of time reading up on news, tips and opinions about our industry. Yesterday, while scrolling through the feed, I stumbled upon some astonishing news that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shared with the publication about his networking company. According to Weiner, LinkedIn “now has 85 million users – and the latest one million signed up within the last nine days.”
Holy Shnikes Batman! LinkedIn is growing…and fast!
Every second, LinkedIn adds a new user with about half of all new accounts being created outside North America. If you haven’t yet created a company profile for your business on LinkedIn, you’d better do it right now, or your competitors will beat you to the potential customers in your marketplace.
Setting up a company profile is relatively simple, and your business will reap multiple rewards ranging from improved customer relations to better SEO ranking and heightened brand awareness. The trick is putting in the time to do it right. The best way to promote your company on LinkedIn is by using all the tools available and regularly participating in active discussion forums on the platform.
Here at inmedia, we’ve now helped a few clients get properly set up on LinkedIn. Here’s a quick summary of our best-practices approach to doing so.
1. Be professional
Because LinkedIn is excellent for SEO, it is likely that your company profile will receive noticeably increased web traffic within the forum, through search engines and through your company website, if you chose to link to your company profile through a LinkedIn widget. For these reasons, it is imperative that your profile looks professional. We counsel our clients to keep the following factors in mind:
Company overview: Spend time brainstorming and writing your company overview to appeal to your intended LinkedIn audience. Your “about us” section from your website can be used as a good starting point but because LinkedIn is a social site, you should also consider using this space to explain your company from a different vantage point, namely the customer’s. While consistency and basic facts are important, you should hone in on why the person reading your profile should care about your products and services. Be personal and inviting as well as professional in your language use. Also note that there is a 200 minimum and 2,000 maximum character limit.
Company logo: Include one next to your company overview to help people recognize and remember your business. I’ve personally seen a number logos on company profiles that appear stretched and off-colour. You should use a picture-editing program to refine your logo before publishing it on your profile.
2. Research competitive specialties
Many LinkedIn users search for information by keyword. To improve your business’s results, your company profile should include well-researched and competitive specialties that reflect your business’s offerings. For example, if your business is in the manufacturing sector, include specialties that are specific to the type of manufacturing your business does, instead of simply listing “manufacturing,” a generic term that will put your business up against every other manufacturing business on LinkedIn. You should also note that although LinkedIn offers 20 spaces for specialties, there is a 256-character limit for the total number of specialties listed. Researching and developing such a list is a time-consuming undertaking that our clients have been happy to have us do for them.
3. Use LinkedIn aggregated data
LinkedIn can pull data about your business from all around the site, including key statistics, job listings and links to the profiles of all current and former employees, new hires and recent promotions. LinkedIn also analyzes businesses and the connections employees have on the network. For example, it will automatically calculate your business’s median age, top schools that most of your business’s employees attended, and other businesses to which it is well connected.
It is a good idea to include all aggregated information provided by LinkedIn on your company profile to encourage people to connect with you to ask about job opportunities, your business and industry information, among other inquiries. As your reputation grows on LinkedIn, more individuals will be inclined to engage with your business in Groups and Answers, discussed later in this post.
4. Make use of the new Products & Services feature
Earlier this month, LinkedIn unveiled the new Products & Services feature for company profiles to give members “rich, credible insights into how any given product (or service) is perceived by their fellow professionals.” Through this feature, professionals can make recommendations about your business’s products and services, which are showcased on your company profile. Each time a LinkedIn member endorses your products or services, their recommendation becomes visible to all of their connections and could spread virally. These recommendations can help promote your business and build its credibility.
6. Include the “Mentioned in the News” section
Mentions of your business in the news should be shared on the company profile to keep people informed of advancements and achievements. Sharing these stories of success will promote your business’s reputation as an industry leader and encourage people to connect with you for discussion and business opportunities. It is best to keep these headlines current and from third-party sources and ensure that there are no repeats.
7. Follow other companies
There is ample opportunity for your business to follow and be followed by partners, suppliers and customers on LinkedIn. Connecting with companies through following and being followed is beneficial to your business because it helps build rapport between industry members and shows others that you value community building.
8. Participate in Groups and Answers
Answers are active conversations on the platform about a particular issue. A question is posed and then users can respond and participate in the discussion. Asking and answering questions are good ways for you to attract professionals to your company profile, establish a thought-leadership position for your business and also keep a finger on the pulse of the industry.
Groups are also active conversations on the platform about particular issues. Professionals can ask questions, make statements or post content to drive discussions. Starting and participating in discussions are great ways to attract professionals to your company profile, engage with your marketplace and build an active network on the platform.
There are multiple reasons why getting your business on LinkedIn is important, now more than ever. What are your best practices for B2B companies interesting in getting onto LinkedIn?
