How to Use LinkedIn For Business in 2022: An Easy Step-by – Guide

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.

create a company page icon on LinkedIn

Choose from the following options to choose the correct type of Page:

Medium to large businessesShowcase pageEducational institution


create a LinkedIn page

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.


COVID-19 Hootsuite Resources affiliated 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.


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.


optimize page including cover image and image preview

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.


image description and URL

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.


choose relevant hashtags from list of topics

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.


hashtag page topic

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.


Hootsuite Social Trends 2022 branded cover image

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.


Select custom buttons to display on page

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.


Michelle's Existential Crisis website URL

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!


post highlights in past 30 days

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.


choose to share page next to edit icon

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.


LinkedIn option on bottom of website

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.


updated profile icons and URL

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?


invite connections to share

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.


Hootsuite Planner overview

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.


LinkedIn products including learning insights and groups

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.


write article option

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.


publish as personal profile or company page

It’s almost like having your blog software. You can easily format your post, add images or video, and even save drafts.


publishing menu including formatting options

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.


LinkedIn Poll voting options

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.


AutoSchedule

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.

Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Source: Adobe

SlideShare

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.


Glassdoor via Hootsuite App Directory

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.

Get Started

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