This is a guest post by Greta Weiner.
When you think of LinkedIn, you mostly think about your resume, your contacts and perhaps job openings. You post items that make you look like you know your industry, and you like the successes of your friends, co-workers and clients. If you’re a star on LinkedIn, you use it to make business to business (B2B) sales, and you might even be a contributor to LinkedIn Pulse.
Let’s put on your manager hat. Are you in HR? Are you the CEO? Are the Marketing Director?
Why should you bother with a business page on LinkedIn?
- SEO – all social media posts, no matter the platform, help rank you higher in the search engines. If part of your business depends on a website to sell your service or products, LinkedIn can help put you on page one or help you stay there.
- Disseminate information – like other social media platforms, LinkedIn is a way to reach out to your customers, fans, followers, etc.
- Engage your customers – (See #6 on this list for more information). LinkedIn is a great way to get your information seen and shared. Sharing on LinkedIn happens differently than other social media platforms, because on LinkedIn if your post is important to doing business for your customers, they are more likely to share it than on Facebook
- Fill positions – a business page on LinkedIn is a great place to put up job positions you need to fill. They will be seen not only by those seeking employment, but the best type of candidate, one currently employed and unhappy in their position. Your job opening will be in their feed among their peers’ success stories, business articles, and motivational posters.
- Great Demographics – Unlike other social media, LinkedIn has a sweet spot demographic. No other social media has the ability to reach C level managers. Your CEO’s, and other upper management are easier to reach on a business forum like LinkedIn, rather than a social forum like Facebook. This is invaluable to businesses that sell B2B and need upper management approval for sales.
- Wide Open – unlike Facebook, LinkedIn has little clutter. In fact, there are many articles that explicitly warn against posts on LinkedIn that are frivolous and not business behavior. This leaves plenty of room for your company posts to be seen and shared. openings. You post items that make you look like you know your industry, and you like the successes of your friends, co-workers and clients. If you’re a star on LinkedIn, you use it to make business to business (B2B) sales, and you might even be a contributor to LinkedIn Pulse.
Any of these advantages could go away tomorrow. Currently what makes LinkedIn great is that it is all business. There isn’t a lot of cartoons, pictures of babies or cats, or jokes. That could change. Take advantage that now LinkedIn posts carry more credibility because of the business environment and start utilizing the platform for your business.
Likewise, you should start using sponsored content in LinkedIn. LinkedIn has not ramped up as much advertising like Facebook, Instagram and such. That means again, with less clutter your ad breaks through and gets seen. And as discussed above, your ad will be seen by upper management. And since LinkedIn is all about business, your ad is more likely to be shared.
To give you an idea, I worked with an insurance company that would spend a couple hundred a month on boosting posts on LinkedIn and Facebook. One such post, was advertising a free open enrollment event. Same post, same budget, and LinkedIn outperformed Facebook by reaching nearly 50% more people.
Like other social media LinkedIn also gives you analytics and insights. They can show you what posts were most engaging and how many were reached. What can be really useful is their statistics on the people who saw your posts / ads. They can show you what percentage of them were top management, middle management, retired, unemployed, etc.
I’m not advocating that you dump the other social media platforms you may already be using. But if you are not adding LinkedIn to them, you’re missing out on a media that is uncluttered, extremely targeted and bringing success to your peers and competition.
Greta Weiner has an extensive background in media advertising and marketing – newspaper, radio, television, cable and online.
One of the first in Albuquerque to offer Social Media Marketing to her clients, she’s worked with companies like Cliff’s Amusement Park, New Mexico Health Connections, a QVC jewelry company based locally, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Bernalillo County.
She’s given seminars at the National Association of Government Communicators, the New Mexico chapter of the American Marketing Association, and the New Mexico Broadcasters Association, and has been a panelist for the New Mexico Advertising Federation and New Mexico chapter of Public Relations Society of America.
You may read more of her writing at www.gretaweiner.com
