LinkedIn, the world’s largest business network, has 722 million active users as of January 2022. LinkedIn is used by 25% of American adults, with 22% using it daily.
Why? The main reason?
How can you market your business effectively on LinkedIn?
We have compiled everything you need about marketing your company via LinkedIn — updated for 2022.
Bonus: Download a free guide detailing the 11 strategies Hootsuite’s social-media team used to increase their LinkedIn audience to between 0 and 278,000.
How to use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business
All it takes is a Company Page. To do anything on LinkedIn for your business, you need one. Here are the steps to get one.
Step 1: Create an account for yourself
You will need an account to access LinkedIn. This account will be your administrator for your Company Page. However, you can add more Page managers later. Although I recommend that you sign up using your work email address, it’s not necessary.
Step 2: Create your LinkedIn Company Page
Now we can create our Page. Once you have logged in, click the Work icon at top right of your browser. Scroll down to the bottom of this menu and choose Create a Company page.
Choose from the following options to choose the correct type of Page:
Medium to large businessesShowcase pageEducational institution
They are all self-explanatory, except for the “Showcase Pages.” These pages can be used by companies to seperate business divisions and have their own pages but still link back to the corporate Page.
As you can see, Showcase Pages are located on the main Company Page.
Once you have selected the Page type, begin filling out your details. LinkedIn users will first see your logo and tagline. Take the time to create a compelling tagline.
Hootsuite’s slogan is “The global leader for social media management.”
Once you are done, click on Create page.
Ta-da! You now have a Company Page.
Step 3: Optimize Your Page
These are the basics. Now it’s time for you to optimize your Page so that it gets noticed and builds your following.
Scroll down, then click on the blue Edit Page button.
Complete all fields in the additional information area. This will help you with your LinkedIn SEO (a.k.a.. appearing in search results. It’s worthwhile: Companies with complete profiles receive 30% more views.
Few LinkedIn Page Optimization Tips
Translate
Serve a global audience? Translations can be added here. This means you don’t have to create a separate Company Page per region. Your Page can contain up to 20 languages. It also includes the name, description, and tagline fields. Me gusta.
Include keywords in your description
Google indexes your LinkedIn Page. Use natural-sounding keywords wherever possible in the first paragraph. Limit it to three to four paragraphs about your vision, values and products.
Use hashtags
You can’t put that in your Page copy. There are up to three hashtags you can follow.
Clicking on Hashtags in the post editor will take you to all of these hashtags. This allows you to comment, like, and share relevant posts directly from your Page.
A branded cover photo can be added
This space can be used to highlight your latest product launch, or any other important news. It should be consistent with your brand. Hootsuite now offers the Social Trends 2022 Report: A free mega-deep dive that contains the secret sauce to beat your competitors this year (and next year …).).
This space’s current dimensions are 1128pxx191px.
Finally, add a custom button
This button is located right next to the Follow one and LinkedIn users will see it on your Page. It can be changed to any one of these:
Contact usLearn moreRegisterSign upVisit website
“Visit website” is the default choice.
It is possible to change your URL at any time. For example, if you are hosting a webinar, or other event, change the title to “Register” or to “Sign up”. Then, go back to your website. You can add a UTM to your URL so that you can track leads coming from specific locations.
Watch our quick video to do a Page check-up in under 3 minutes:
Step 4: Create your page following
If you don’t tell anyone about your Page, no one will know.
This is a cute illustration of a marketer in sweatpants, having a conversation with their dog about the quarter’s –wait, a second, that’s me!
Here are four ways to show your love for your new Page:
1. It can be shared
Click on the Share Page button beside your main page.
Add your Page to your LinkedIn profile. Ask your customers, employees and friends to follow it. This is a simple first step.
2. It can be linked from your website
Include the LinkedIn icon in your footer with the rest of the icons for social media.
3. Ask employees to update profiles
This is crucial for long-term growth of your Page. You didn’t have an existing Page when your employees listed their job titles in their profiles. These titles do not link to anywhere.
Once your page is created, ask your employees for their job descriptions to be updated on LinkedIn to link to your Company Page.
They simply need to edit the section of their profile, delete company names and start retyping them in the same area. LinkedIn will search for page names that match yours. After they click on yours, and you save the changes, your profile will link back to your Page.
This not only allows your contacts to find you and follow you but also makes that user an employee of your company. Your company can establish credibility by displaying the number of employees it has.
4. Send invitations to those who will follow
You can invite your friends to follow your Page from your Page. LinkedIn has a limit on how many invites you can send to make sure people don’t spam.
Bonus: Download a free guide that explains the 11 strategies Hootsuite’s social-media team used to increase their LinkedIn audience to between 0 and 278,000 followers.
Get the guide for free right now!
Although this isn’t the best method, many people ignore their LinkedIn notifications (guilty). However, it only takes a few minutes so why not?
Step 5: Implement your LinkedIn marketing strategy
Do you have a LinkedIn marketing strategy?
The hard part is creating a page. If you don’t have a plan, it can be difficult to keep the page going with the content that your audience is looking for.
Your LinkedIn strategy should contain answers to the following questions:
What’s the purpose of your LinkedIn Page page? This goal may differ from your overall social media goals. What will your Page be used for? Recruiting? Lead generation? Are you planning to advertise? How much are you able to spend on LinkedIn ads? What do your competitors do? And how can you make better content?
Finally, create a content strategy.
What frequency will you post? What topics will you be covering? How can you reuse existing content for LinkedIn? Are you going to curate content?
Hootsuite’s Planner makes it easy to keep track of what you will post about and how frequently.
Upload your content and schedule it for auto-publishing. You can quickly view all of the information in either a weekly, or monthly view. You can quickly see how your posts are balanced across all goals and topics.
You should not only post your content but also engage with others. LinkedIn is still a social networking site, even though it’s primarily for business.
Take a look at our top tips to grow your audience in 2022.
LinkedIn can be used for business in four ways
Advertising on LinkedIn
There are many LinkedIn ad formats that you can choose from:
Sponsored text adsSponsored posts, like “boosting” an already existing Page post.Sponsored messaging (to the user’s LinkedIn Inbox).Dynamic ads which can include a user’s details such as name and profile photo.Photo carousel ads
LinkedIn users can influence the purchase decisions of four out five businesses. Ads can be very successful.
Hootsuite Social Advertising allows you to create, manage, and analyze all of your social advertising campaigns across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook from one dashboard. Hootsuite’s unique analytics provide new insights. They show the performance of paid and organic campaigns across all three platforms. The ability to adjust campaigns and access the right information is available so you always have what you need.
Posting job openings and recruiting
LinkedIn users already use job listings to find new jobs. Every week, 40 million people use LinkedIn to search for new jobs. A listing can be posted for free and will also appear on your Company Page.
Advertising your job listings for a fee can be worthwhile. Paid job advertisements receive 25% more applications that non-promoted jobs.
LinkedIn offers a dedicated premium account for recruiters that has been used worldwide for many years. A Lite version is available for small businesses.
Networking
This is the whole point of LinkedIn. As more business transactions and tasks are conducted virtually, your professional network is even more important.
LinkedIn reported that the number of conversations between connected users increased by 55% between January 2020 and January 2021.
LinkedIn Groups are a great way to network. These private discussion groups are not visible on your profile so any content you share there will be hidden. Companies have one problem: you cannot join the Groups with your Company Page. Your personal profile must be used in Groups.
However, most Groups allow users share Page content. Joining a Group can help you build both personal connections and Page followers.
You can locate Groups by clicking the Work icon in the top right corner of the LinkedIn dashboard.
Leadership through thought
LinkedIn allows you post long-form content. This is what many business leaders use to establish influential thought leadership reputations. When used correctly, long-form content can help you establish yourself as an expert and innovator in your field.
Click Write an article to post an article on LinkedIn.
To post, you can choose to use your personal account or Company Page. Choose your new Company Page, as we want to help you grow your business.
You could also post thought leadership content under the CEO’s profile and then re-share it to your Company Page.
It’s almost like having your blog software. You can easily format your post, add images or video, and even save drafts.
The hard part is writing your piece. The hard part is writing it. Now who will read it?
You must be committed to thought leadership if you want to achieve your goals. Why bother? B2B decision makers love thought leadership content.
These prospects are willing to pay more for companies that produce thought leadership content.
Here are some tips to help you succeed.
Be consistent. It is essential to maintain your existing readers and attract new ones. You can decide on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly posting schedule. Then — and this is the most important thing — you should actually do it. Be original. Do not republish existing articles. Stand up, make a statement and present a compelling argument. You don’t have to agree with everyone. It’s unlikely that everyone will agree with you. Make sure to share and promote older posts. LinkedIn saw a 60% increase in content production between 2015 and 2020. This means that there is plenty of competition. Your content is still valuable, but make sure you share it multiple times.
Three important tips for LinkedIn marketing
Your goals will determine how you market your business via LinkedIn. These are three essential things that every marketer should do in order to market their business like a pro.
Optimize your posts
LinkedIn’s relevancy is more important that recency. Like all platforms, their algorithm aims to show users more relevant information and less irrelevant content.
The only LinkedIn poll that I ever voted for was about how much polls I hated, so it was a funny thing when LinkedIn offered me this as a top-of-my-feed joke.
These are the top ways to optimize content
Include an image or another asset whenever possible. Posts with visuals get 98% more comments that posts with text. Include a photo, slideshare presentation, or video. Video assets receive five times more engagement than other assets. Keep your post copy brief. Keep your post copy short.
Learn more about LinkedIn content optimization from Hootsuite Academy.
LinkedIn Analytics: Learn from them
You’re hackin’ if you don’t trackin’.
Accurate and timely analytics are essential to measuring the success of your marketing goals. LinkedIn offers basic analytics, but Hootsuite Analytics can help you save time and get more information.
This guide will cover everything you need to know regarding Hootsuite Analytics. But, the main thing is that you can track:
The most interesting content.
Hootsuite Analytics provides custom insights that allow you to tweak your LinkedIn strategy to achieve your goals.
Post when it is convenient
Which is the best time to post on LinkedIn
There is no best time. It all depends on where your target audience is located on LinkedIn. It all depends on many factors, including their work schedule and time zone.
Knowing your audience is key to success in content marketing.
Hootsuite assists with this huge time.
You can schedule your posts ahead of time so that you don’t forget, and you can also AutoSchedule them to be posted at the most convenient time for you company. Hootsuite analyses your past performance to determine when your audience is most engaged.
4 LinkedIn marketing tools
Hootsuite
This article will discuss how Hootsuite can help your LinkedIn strategy. Hootsuite does it all: post planning, AutoScheduling, placing ads and replying to comments.
Hootsuite + LinkedIn = BFFs
Hootsuite is able to do much more for LinkedIn and other social media platforms. You will be amazed at how powerful Hootsuite is.
Dobe Creative Cloud Express
Creative Cloud Express, formerly Adobe Spark, allows you to create eye-catching visuals from your browser or mobile device.
It allows you to remove background images, add animations, resize graphics and create professional-quality videos. You can also access a template library to create professionally designed pieces that will help you grow your brand. Adobe Stock images are also available for free.
Source: Adobe
LinkedIn posts are instantly more shareable if they contain meaty content such as a white paper, presentation, or infographic.
SlideShare is the best platform to add this type of content. SlideShare is a separate platform than LinkedIn so you can add your content there. It’s only necessary to attach your content to LinkedIn posts, such as this functional slider presentation.
PowerPoint is a Scam! By @jessedee – Jesse Desjardins @jessedee
LinkedIn will display it as a presentation format if you upload a PDF or PowerPoint file.
Glassdoor
It is crucial to manage your company’s reputation on LinkedIn for recruiting.
Hootsuite’s App directory allows you to install the Glassdoor App. Glassdoors allows job seekers to see more about your company by sharing your LinkedIn Company Page posts. This report also contains analytics reports on Glassdoor content engagement, along with other Hootsuite reports.
LinkedIn allows you to establish credibility and build a network. With the right LinkedIn marketing strategy, all this is possible. Now you can learn how to make yours.
Hootsuite makes it easy to manage your LinkedIn Page as well as all of your social media channels. You can easily schedule, share and reply to comments as well as engage your network from a single dashboard. Get it today for free.
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Get it free> How to use LinkedIn for Business in 2022: Step-by-Step Guide
