LinkedIn is The Biggest Professional Social Media Platform

Recruiters use the platform to find the best candidates, sales professionals to generate leads and entrepreneurs to build a professional network. Here are a few fantastic facts about LinkedIn:

• More than 65 million professionals are on LinkedIn. In every second that counts, there is one person who logs in on LinkedIn.
• Approximately 50% of its members are part of the team that makes decisions in their organizations. You call them the “Decision Makers”.
• The “professional social network” has connected millions of professionals worldwide. I would not be wrong to say that LinkedIn is the preferred networking platform for professionals from all across the globe.
• The platform is not restricted to working professionals. Even entrepreneurs, freelancers, investors, and mentors love promoting their brands in the community.

LinkedIn – the best platform for B2B Marketing!

The backbone of LinkedIn is “the professional network.”

According to the latest statistics, it is estimated that more than 90% of B2B Marketers use LinkedIn to promote their business. In addition, LinkedIn Automation tools help people connect a lot faster and more easily. If stats are to be believed, there are approx. — 40 million decision makers.

If you are looking for a career in digital marketing, LinkedIn should be at the top of your list for business and marketing promotions.

1. How is LinkedIn used in the Business World?

• Networking: LinkedIn is used by professionals from all across the globe to connect with professionals in their industry.  The motive is to engage in professional networking online, and LinkedIn has succeeded in doing the same. They have grown multi-fold from approx. Three hundred fifty million users in the first quarter of 2015 to 510 million users by 01st Jan 2018 (source).
• Recruitment: With a vast network of working professionals, LinkedIn has become a perfect ground for finding the best talent for your company. As per the latest statistics, more than 94% of Professional Recruiters use LinkedIn to find the best talent for their company.
• Brand Awareness: Companies are investing a lot of time and money to promote their brand on LinkedIn by posting content that not only gives updates about the company but also shares content that helps them with many events, such as product launches, etc.
• Lead Generation: The holy grail of Marketing. Businesses want leads, and B2 B businesses invest all the time worldwide to generate valid leads from LinkedIn.

2. How can you use LinkedIn?

To use LinkedIn, you must set up a professional profile. While individuals can set up their profiles, Businesses can set up professional pages on LinkedIn.

Recommended: How to Use Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Both types of profiles are used on LinkedIn, where a professional or personal profile is more of your own identity, while the LinkedIn business page is the identity of your business page.

A profile page is a personal page you create on the LinkedIn platform written with a personal tone. Only you can manage your profile page. It also includes your personal information, such as:

1. Who are you? : Name, Gender, Education History, About you, etc.
2. Your Professional History: Job History, Current Designation, etc.
3. Your Accomplishments: A section where you can update information about certifications, awards, etc.

A LinkedIn Company’s page, on the other hand, is your company’s profile. Different users in a company can manage this page. The page’s main objective is to broadcast the Company’s updates to increase its visibility.

3. Who should use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional network. It can be used by professionals who are looking to grow their professional network. One in every three professionals worldwide is on LinkedIn, making it a perfect social media platform for professional networking.

Furthermore, you can use LinkedIn to get noticed in the professional world through your ideas, suggestions, and content, as the platform allows you to post updates, participate in discussions, etc.

You will find LinkedIn relevant as 13% of LinkedIn users do not have a Facebook account (I am one of them) and believe in keeping the discussion tone – professional.

4. How do you do LinkedIn Marketing or use LinkedIn for Sales & Marketing?

• Set up a “Perfect” LinkedIn Profile:

The first noticeable thing about a LinkedIn profile is the profile image. Ensure the picture is of you in professional attire and not of your cat. Take a little effort to make yourself look “Professional.”

The profile picture should be clear and official, too, and note that after you upload an image for your profile, LinkedIn shows it as 400*400 pixels.

Next comes the headline of a profile. The headline should have at least 130 characters. The first thing visitors will notice once they visit your page or profile is your profile image and your profile headline with relevant keywords.

These small details, like using the right picture, help you to build trust. Based on the first look, someone will quickly decide whether they want to connect with you. Once you set up the profile, you need to update the Summary.

In summary, you should add a professional overview of yourself. You can also attach videos of you giving a speech or receiving an award.

Remember, LinkedIn is all about pitching you professionally. Do not add things that do not link to your professional side. Adding keywords to the experience and summary is advisable, but even if you do not add them, they are not a deal breaker.

Once you have set up the necessary information, you must get a little active in asking for recommendations from past colleagues, clients, bosses, etc.

Be Strategic. Ask every person to give their opinions on specific areas. You can even offer to recommend them instead of a recommendation from their side. Do not forget to thank your recommenders. Once you have all the recommendations, check if any section is incomplete; otherwise, you are good to go.

• Create a LinkedIn Page for the Company

A LinkedIn page helps you professionally promote your business. Marketing and Sales on LinkedIn can only be a success once your profile is in sync with your LinkedIn Business page. Both must complement each other in terms of content and status messages posted there.

Start by selecting a cover image that reflects the message of your brand. This will enable you to put more information and update posts. The posts will look better and more professional from a brand than a person. Similar to your personal profile, you must update all the relevant information regarding the business on the LinkedIn page.

• Update Content Regularly:

You must plan your LinkedIn Content Calendar before you start posting regular content.

A good content marketing strategy is the first step to succeeding on any platform. Random posts and ideas might get you accidental success, but you are here for a long game, and for that, your content must align with what you are promoting or advertising on LinkedIn.

You can use your company’s page to post news or the Latest updates in your industry, which is beautiful and will help you keep your followers in the loop with what your business is up to, but it won’t set the stage on fire. You need content that would make the user think and engage better with your brand.

Canva or alternatives of canva can be a valuable tool in your LinkedIn marketing strategy. By creating eye-catching and informative promotional materials, you can effectively highlight your brand’s offerings, promotions, and events, driving engagement and attracting potential clients.

Use a ContentStrategy which involves a mix of the following content:

• Industry News and Opinion: You can pick up the latest trending news in your industry and post the link on LinkedIn along with an opinion of your own. This kind of content portrays you as someone who understands the industry and has something useful and meaningful to share on the latest trends. You can post this content on your company’s page or your profile.
• Blogs on Pulse: LinkedIn’s blogging platform is called Pulse. Time and again, you can see trending blogs written on Pulse on your LinkedIn wall. LinkedIn is a great platform to reach a vast professional network, and one of the methods to do that is by writing regular blog posts on Pulse. You need to use your profile to post on Pulse’s blog. Company pages cannot directly blog on Pulse.
• Humour: A little joke does not kill anyone ???? . Get some Humour in the game. I usually use a lot of Dilbert kind of office Humour to post status messages with a personal story attached to it.
• Company’s progress and updates: Finally, content you are dying to post. Go ahead and post your achievements on LinkedIn with some witty messages. I would suggest “Do not overdo your brand promotion” because this may make  LinkedIn users get frustrated, and they might even stop following your brand.
• Participation in Discussions: Last but not least, get active in discussions on LinkedIn and use it as an opportunity to grow your profile

To get an appropriate solution to the question “How to make your LinkedIn profile popular?”. Here are three simple steps to follow:

1. Identify your business domain.
2. Find Influencers and discussions in your business domain.
3. Participate in discussions or respond to comments (Remember, do not pick up a fight. You are a human, not a Troll ???? !)

The better your participation is (valuable), the more the chances – LinkedIn users will get attracted to your profile and will send you a LinkedIn Connection request or will start following you.

I see a spike in my profile visits whenever I participate in discussions happening in my industry. LinkedIn groups are another important feature of LinkedIn, which allows you to find relevant discussions.

You can join other active groups and Engage with other users. You will form new ties and even genuine business relationships from the engagements. The time users spend on LinkedIn and the engagement percentage they have on LinkedIn, in comparison to other platforms, is the edge LinkedIn has over other social networking websites.

As per some amazing stats posted by Alex Rynne on LinkedIn People spend time on other social media network, but they invest time on LinkedIn, they value the time they spend on LinkedIn.

It’s been estimated, 94% of Business marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. The verdict is that LinkedIn users are serious users and value the time they spend on the platform. Undoubtedly – Posting relevant, engaging Content is the best strategy to engage them.

• Grow your professional Network:

With Content getting more engagement, your professional network will grow. This, in turn, will help your profile get more attention from strangers who will value you for your content on LinkedIn. These strangers will, in turn, become followers.

With time, you can generate leads from the followers. The steps mentioned above are lead generation concepts for businesses in marketing and sales on LinkedIn. The better the profile, the more the chances of you getting noticed.

The better the company’s page, the more the chances of your page gaining more followers. And the more engaging the content, the more followers you will have on the platform.

As you can see, every step is interrelated and contributes equally to creating a brand whose brand awareness leads to more connections. Since the network you grow and engage here is full of professionals in your industry, LinkedIn, a platform, is an excellent place for B2B Companies to do sales and marketing.

5. How can LinkedIn help a Business?

• LinkedIn helps Businesses with brand awareness.
• LinkedIn helps Businesses grow their network.
• LinkedIn helps Businesses with Recruitment
• LinkedIn helps Businesses with Marketing.
• LinkedIn helps Brands improve their Client support system (mainly when their product/service is targeted towards Business).
• LinkedIn helps you with better PR.
• LinkedIn helps you get direct testimonials from clients on your profile in the form of recommendations and testimonial.s

LinkedIn has always been a perfect platform for your Business to grow on the internet. I highly recommend that business owners looking to leverage the power of social media to grow their business online invest time on LinkedIn and grow their business by increasing their professionalism on LinkedIn.

Happy Networking!